Uvalde school shooter's cousin arrested for allegedly threatening to 'do the same thing'

The 17-year-old cousin of the gunman who killed 19 children and 2 teachers in a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school last year was arrested for allegedly threatening to "do the same thing" to a school, court documents show.

Nathan James Cruz, the cousin of Uvalde shooter Salvador Ramos, was arrested Monday on a third-degree felony charge of issuing a terroristic threat against a public place and a class A misdemeanor of targeting a family member with a terroristic threat, Bexar County Central Magistrate records show.

San Antonio Police Department Sgt. Washington Moscoso told The New York Times on Monday that investigators confirmed that Cruz is the cousin of Ramos, who was killed by law enforcement responding to the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.

Cruz's mother called the police after her daughter told her that Cruz was planning "to do the same thing" as Ramos, according to an affidavit obtained by the paper. He had also threatened to shoot his sister in the head, according to a court document.

"She called the police because she was concerned of what her son was going to do," Moscoso said. "God knows what could have happened. ... Because she did the right thing, this individual has been arrested."

Cruz's mother told police she was worried about the threats because "they live near an elementary school" and her son was "intoxicated," according to the arrest warrant.

Additionally, the document states that Cruz's mother "overheard a phone conversation the suspect made this morning in which the suspect attempted to acquire an AR-15 through an illegal private sale."

Cruz's bond was set at $150,000 for the felony and $10,000 for the misdemeanor.

Other people have been arrested in Ramos' family since the tragedy in Uvalde. The gunman's mother, Adriana Martinez Reyes, was arrested in January for allegedly threatening to kill a man she lived with in Oklahoma, according to another police report cited by Times.

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