4th grade survivor of Texas school taking pictures describes gunman’s words before opening hearth

Survivors of the Texas elementary faculty capturing are recounting the gunman's eerie remaining phrases of "Good evening" and "You're all gonna die" before opening hearth, and how some played useless to be spared in the spray of bullets.

Fourth grade pupil Miah Cerrillo, 11, told CNN her class was watching “Lilo and Stitch” when the shooter appeared Tuesday at Robb Elementary in Uvalde.

She mentioned the gunman checked out certainly one of her lecturers within the eye and stated, “Good evening” before capturing her.

Miah told her story by way of a CNN producer. She did not wish to converse on digital camera and declined to talk to any males following her experience with the school shooting and only felt comfortable chatting with women, the broadcaster said. NBC Information could not immediately verify the account.

Miah herself was hit by fragments in the hail of bullets, CNN reported.

After firing shots in her classroom, the shooter went into the adjoining classroom and opened fireplace, Miah mentioned. She mentioned she heard “sad music” taking part in, believing the gunman put it on. 

When requested what the music was, she stated it gave the impression of, “I want people to die music.”

Miah mentioned that when the gunman went into the opposite room she smeared a pal’s blood on herself to look lifeless. She also stated she and a pal grabbed their trainer’s phone and referred to as 911, telling a dispatcher, “Please ship assist because we’re in bother.” 

In the Tuesday horror, 19 youngsters and two teachers were killed, and one other 17 were wounded.

A Robb Elementary teacher, who spoke on the situation of anonymity, informed NBC News that a Raptor alert, a program designed to alert employees of a lockdown, went off after photographs have been fired and kids began to hide below their desks in the class. 

Samuel Salinas, 10, was a scholar in teacher Irma Garcia’s class on Tuesday when the school capturing unfolded.

“It was a traditional day until my trainer mentioned we’re on extreme lockdown” and “then there was capturing within the windows,” he said in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Friday.

He said that the gunman barged into the classroom, announced, “You’re all gonna die,” after which started to shoot. 

“He shot the teacher after which he shot the kids,” Samuel mentioned. 

He explained that he survived by playing lifeless after he got hit in the leg with shrapnel that hit a chair between him and the shooter.

“I think he was aiming at me,” Samuel stated. “I played dead so he wouldn’t shoot me.”

When police lastly entered the room and shot the gunman, the kids have been evacuated. Within the rushed exit, Samuel saw the bodies of his instructor and different pupils.

“There was blood on the ground,” he mentioned. “And there were children ... stuffed with blood.” 

The investigation into the taking pictures is ongoing, and plenty of questions remain as to why it took police so long to take out the gunman.

The shooter, Salvador Ramos, 18, was killed on the scene.

In a information conference Thursday, Texas officials walked again beforehand released information, saying the gunman wasn’t confronted by a school police officer and entered the varsity constructing unobstructed.

Police now say it took over an hour from the first 911 name to cease the massacre.

Officials shared a brand new timeline revealing that at 11:28 a.m. Tuesday the gunman crashed a vehicle close to the college and shot at two folks outdoors a funeral residence across the street, then climbed over a fence to Robb Elementary.

Officers mentioned the primary 911 name got here in at 11:30 a.m., the gunman entered the college 10 minutes later and four minutes later police were on the scene. The primary officers on the scene referred to as for backup, however tactical teams didn’t arrive till about an hour later, Victor Escalon, the South Texas regional director for the state Department of Public Safety, said Thursday.

Texas investigators advised NBC Information victims of the taking pictures were present in 4 school rooms.

Robb Elementary serves second by way of fourth grade students in the small town of Uvalde, which is about 75 miles from the Mexico borders and residential to a large Latino community.

Parents and loved ones who have been gathered outdoors Robb Elementary in the course of the taking pictures begged and shouted at police to enter and defend their children.

Angeli Rose Gomez told The Wall Road Journal she was handcuffed by U.S. marshals exterior the varsity for repeatedly demanding police enter the school. 

“The police had been doing nothing,” she said to the paper. “They have been just standing outdoors the fence. They weren’t entering into there or working wherever.” 

She stated at first she waited patiently then when she grew to become extra fervent together with her pleas, U.S. marshals allegedly arrested her for intervening in an lively investigation. 

Marshals advised NBC Information in an announcement that deputy marshals “never arrested or positioned anyone in handcuffs whereas securing the crime scene perimeter.”

“Our deputy marshals maintained order and peace in the midst of the grief-stricken neighborhood that was gathering across the school."

Marlene Lenthang is a breaking information reporter for NBC Information Digital.

Pete Williams and Jonathan Dienst contributed.