The cousin of the Uvalde shooter, who killed 19 students and two teachers, was arrested on Monday for allegedly attempting to buy the same rifle used in the Robb Elementary mass shooting and threatening to shoot up a different school.
Nathan Cruz, 17, was arrested on August 7 in San Antonio after his mother and sister alerted police to threats he had purportedly made. Cruz allegedly said he was going to shoot his sister and he was going to “shoot the school,” according to Fox 4 KDFW.
Cruz’s mother overheard him attempting to purchase an AR-15 on the phone, she claimed.
Salvador Ramos, the person who allegedly carried out the massacre at the Uvalde school in May, is Cruz’s cousin. Cruz’s sister claimed that Cruz was “planning to do the same thing.”
The police determined that the statements from Cruz’s family were credible enough to issue a warrant, and he was arrested shortly after. Cruz currently lives next to an elementary school.
Cruz denied the claims but is currently in jail, charged with two counts of making a terroristic threat against a public place and a family member.
“This case is an example of See Something, Say Something,” wrote the San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) in a Facebook post. “Here a family member called police, resulting in detectives investigating the case which concluded in an [arrest].”
“With school starting, SAPD wants parents and faculty to know, that SAPD takes all reports of threats seriously and will investigate and take appropriate action,” the post concluded.
San Antonio Police Sergeant Washington Moscoso said the family made the difficult but correct choice in calling the police.
Brett Cross, who lost a child in the Uvalde shooting, said, “It’s frustrating, but it makes that fight all the more real because yeah we got lucky this time that somebody was brave enough to say something,” according to NBC News.
Moscoso said that police did not find any weapons in Cruz’s home, per Fox 4.
Dallas has seen 153 homicides this year – up from 144 during the same period last year, according to police data updated on August 5.
Nearby Fort Worth has successfully reduced crime by instituting a focused police force that includes private security in its downtown area.
A City analysis found that the Dallas Police Department is short about 900 police officers. A city the size of Dallas needs roughly 4,000 police officers.