Trigger Warning: Violence
Note that the following story might be sensitive for some readers.
The recent gruesome incident in Texas may have had its early warnings when a gamer claimed that suspect Salvador Ramos revealed his plans to attack the Robb Elementary School after losing at the violent game Dead by Daylight, according to a gamer.
The gamer claimed that a male player was threatening to attack a school using an AR-15 after becoming furious at losing a game. The threats were made hours before the tragic incident took place in Uvalde, Texas, as reported first by The Sun.
The player was so worried about the threats she claimed she had recorded. She contacted the creators of the game and the FBI.
Hours after she recorded his plans, she was aghast to learn that the threats were already carried out.
The game that they were playing was Dead By Daylight, which is a multiplayer horror survival game where one player is the killer, and the other four are survivors. The game was developed by Behaviour Interactive.
Another source also told The Sun that Ramos revealed his plans when he played Call of Duty online, a first-person shooter game.
The gamer took to Reddit to voice her concerns saying that she had no idea if Ramos was joking or not because "they were super angry about losing" and started making threats to attack a school.
When asked about the threats he made on the platform, Behaviour Interactive said that it cannot disclose "specific details publicly."
In their statement to the Sun, the company claimed that all the reports filed by players were acted upon "in a timely manner."
They can't share further details because they want to maintain a "safe space" for their Dead by Daylight fans.
The company added, "in the case of potential real-life threats, we have strict reporting processes involving cybercrime units to ensure that they act situation is addressed by competent authorities."
Last Wednesday, Meta revealed that the suspect sent private one-to-one text messages regarding his gruesome plans on Facebook. Meta said that it cooperated with law enforcement after the incident.
"Security Measures Had Failed"
Steve McGraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, acknowledged that security measures had failed to offer protections for the school.
"Obviously, this is a situation where we failed in the sense that we didn't prevent this mass attack," Mcgraw said in a statement with NBC News.
According to a report by Gizmodo, Robb Elementary School is a member of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, which has doubled up its security budget over the past few years to keep security measures and surveillance technology in place to protect kids.
UCISD's security page noted that they utilized a safety management system from Raptor Technologies to monitor visitors and possibly prevent dangerous persons. They also employed Social Sentinel, a social media monitoring solution to monitor signs of violent or suicidal ideation from students.
The district also had its own police force by creating significant links to the local police department and had an emergency response plan. They even had a "Threat Assessment Team" that is responsible for identifying potential threats to school security.
However, these security measures did not work when the 18-year-old suspect had legally purchased a weapon, and since he is not a student in the school, he couldn't be monitored by security systems.
Related Article: Clearview AI in Schools? Aims to Prevent Incidents like in Texas, Focusing on 'Clearview Consent'
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Joaquin Victor Tacla
