4th grade survivor of Texas school shooting describes gunman’s words earlier than opening fireplace

Survivors of the Texas elementary college taking pictures are recounting the gunman's eerie final phrases of "Good night" and "You are all gonna die" before opening hearth, and how some performed useless to be spared in the spray of bullets.

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

She stated the gunman looked at one in every of her academics in the eye and mentioned, “Good night” earlier than taking pictures her.

Miah advised her story via a CNN producer. She did not wish to communicate on digital camera and declined to talk to any males following her expertise with the varsity capturing and solely felt snug talking to women, the broadcaster mentioned. NBC Information couldn't instantly verify the account.

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

After firing pictures in her classroom, the shooter went into the adjoining classroom and opened hearth, 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 seemed like, “I would like individuals to die music.”

Miah stated that when the gunman went into the other room she smeared a good friend’s blood on herself to look useless. She additionally mentioned she and a good friend grabbed their instructor’s telephone and referred to as 911, telling a dispatcher, “Please send help because we’re in bother.” 

In the Tuesday horror, 19 kids and two lecturers have been killed, and one other 17 were wounded.

A Robb Elementary instructor, who spoke on the situation of anonymity, instructed NBC News that a Raptor alert, a program designed to alert employees of a lockdown, went off after pictures were fired and youngsters started to hide under their desks in the class. 

Samuel Salinas, 10, was a pupil in trainer Irma Garcia’s class on Tuesday when the school shooting unfolded.

“It was a standard day till my instructor mentioned we’re on extreme lockdown” and “then there was taking pictures within the home windows,” he stated 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,” and then began to shoot. 

“He shot the trainer and then he shot the children,” Samuel said. 

He explained that he survived by playing dead after he received hit within the leg with shrapnel that hit a chair between him and the shooter.

“I feel he was aiming at me,” Samuel said. “I performed dead so he wouldn’t shoot me.”

When police finally entered the room and shot the gunman, the youngsters were evacuated. Within the rushed exit, Samuel noticed the bodies of his teacher and other pupils.

“There was blood on the bottom,” he said. “And there were kids ... full of blood.” 

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

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

In a information convention Thursday, Texas officers walked back previously released data, saying the gunman wasn’t confronted by a school police officer and entered the varsity building unobstructed.

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

Officials shared a new timeline revealing that at 11:28 a.m. Tuesday the gunman crashed a automobile near the school and shot at two people outside a funeral house across the road, then climbed over a fence to Robb Elementary.

Officers mentioned the primary 911 name came in at 11:30 a.m., the gunman entered the college 10 minutes later and 4 minutes later police have been on the scene. The primary officers on the scene known as for backup, but tactical groups didn’t arrive till about an hour later, Victor Escalon, the South Texas regional director for the state Department of Public Security, said Thursday.

Texas investigators told NBC News victims of the taking pictures were found in 4 lecture rooms.

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

Dad and mom and family members who have been gathered exterior Robb Elementary through the taking pictures begged and shouted at police to enter and protect their youngsters.

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

“The police have been doing nothing,” she stated to the paper. “They have been just standing outdoors the fence. They weren’t stepping into there or running wherever.” 

She mentioned at first she waited patiently then when she turned more fervent with her pleas, U.S. marshals allegedly arrested her for intervening in an active investigation. 

Marshals advised NBC News in an announcement that deputy marshals “by no means 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 community that was gathering across the college."

Marlene Lenthang is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.

Pete Williams and Jonathan Dienst contributed.