“He should have just killed me instead”

The father of the Texas gunman who massacred 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday apologized for his 18-year-old son and said the teenager should have killed him instead.

The gunman’s father, Salvador Ramos, 42, spoke about his son, also Salvador, in an interview with the Daily Beast on Thursday.

The elder Ramos said he was sorry [for] what my son did.”

“I never expected my son to do something like that,” the father said. “He should have just killed me, you know, instead of doing that to someone.”

The younger Ramos shot his 66-year-old grandmother in the face before bursting “unopposed” into Uvalde School and shooting dead 21 people in a fourth-grade classroom in what was the deadliest mass shooting in Texas history.

The shooter was killed at the scene by police officers who intervened.

The father told the Daily Beast he hasn’t been in his son’s life much lately due to his job outside of Uvalde.

He said he was also away from his son because of the pandemic as he did not want to expose his own mother – who has cancer – to the virus. The COVID-19 restrictions put a strain on the two’s relationship as his son refused to speak to him about a month ago.

The two have not seen each other since then, he said.

Despite the deaths and pain his son has caused, Ramos claimed his son was “a good person”.

“He was a quiet person who kept to himself. He didn’t bother anyone. People always bothered him,” said the father.

The elder Ramos added that his son dropped out of high school because he said he was bullied about his clothes.

Friends and relatives said Ramos was bullied throughout middle school and junior high because of a speech impediment — a stutter and a lisp.

The 18-year-old reportedly had a volatile relationship with his mother Adriana Reyes, who allegedly struggled with drug use and kicked her troubled son out of their home.

She denied they had any such relationship, although Ramos’ grandfather previously told ABC News the teenager was living with him and his wife because he had “issues” with her.

Reyes has insisted her son “wasn’t a violent person” — although she was “troubled” by his “anger,” she told ABC News.