4th grade survivor of Texas school taking pictures describes gunman’s words earlier than opening fire

Survivors of the Texas elementary school taking pictures are recounting the gunman's eerie final phrases of "Good night time" and "You're all gonna die" earlier than opening hearth, and the way some played dead to be spared in the spray of bullets.

Fourth grade scholar 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 looked at one in every of her academics within the eye and said, “Good night time” before shooting her.

Miah advised her story by way of a CNN producer. She did not need to converse on digicam and declined to speak to any men following her experience with the school shooting and only felt comfortable 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 photographs in her classroom, the shooter went into the adjoining classroom and opened hearth, Miah stated. She mentioned she heard “unhappy music” taking part in, believing the gunman put it on. 

When requested what the music was, she said it sounded like, “I would like folks to die music.”

Miah mentioned that when the gunman went into the opposite room she smeared a buddy’s blood on herself to look useless. She additionally stated she and a buddy grabbed their teacher’s cellphone and known as 911, telling a dispatcher, “Please ship assist because we’re in hassle.” 

Within the Tuesday horror, 19 kids and two teachers have been killed, and another 17 were wounded.

A Robb Elementary trainer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told NBC News that a Raptor alert, a program designed to alert staff of a lockdown, went off after pictures were fired and youngsters started to hide below their desks within the class. 

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

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

He stated that the gunman barged into the classroom, announced, “You’re all gonna die,” and then began to shoot. 

“He shot the instructor after which he shot the children,” Samuel said. 

He defined that he survived by enjoying lifeless after he received hit within the leg with shrapnel that hit a chair between him and the shooter.

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

When police lastly entered the room and shot the gunman, the kids were evacuated. In the rushed exit, Samuel noticed the bodies of his teacher and other pupils.

“There was blood on the ground,” he stated. “And there have been youngsters ... filled with blood.” 

The investigation into the taking pictures 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 launched data, saying the gunman wasn’t confronted by a college police officer and entered the varsity building unobstructed.

Police now say it took over an hour from the primary 911 call to stop the bloodbath.

Officers shared a new timeline revealing that at 11:28 a.m. Tuesday the gunman crashed a vehicle near the varsity and shot at two individuals outdoors a funeral house across the road, then climbed over a fence to Robb Elementary.

Officials said the first 911 call got here in at 11:30 a.m., the gunman entered the school 10 minutes later and four minutes later police have been on the scene. The primary officers on the scene referred to as for backup, but tactical teams didn’t arrive till about an hour later, Victor Escalon, the South Texas regional director for the state Department of Public Security, mentioned Thursday.

Texas investigators informed NBC News victims of the taking pictures had been present in four lecture rooms.

Robb Elementary serves second by fourth grade college students within the small city of Uvalde, which is about 75 miles from the Mexico borders and residential to a big Latino group.

Parents and loved ones who were gathered outdoors Robb Elementary throughout the taking pictures begged and shouted at police to enter and protect their kids.

Angeli Rose Gomez advised The Wall Avenue Journal she was handcuffed by U.S. marshals outside the school for repeatedly demanding police enter the college. 

“The police had been doing nothing,” she said to the paper. “They were just standing exterior the fence. They weren’t moving into there or operating anyplace.” 

She said at first she waited patiently then when she became extra fervent with her pleas, U.S. marshals allegedly arrested her for intervening in an energetic investigation. 

Marshals instructed NBC News in a press release that deputy marshals “never arrested or positioned anyone in handcuffs whereas securing the crime scene perimeter.”

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

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

Pete Williams and Jonathan Dienst contributed.