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

Survivors of the Texas elementary college taking pictures are recounting the gunman's eerie remaining phrases of "Good evening" and "You're all gonna die" earlier than opening fire, and how some played lifeless to be spared within the spray of bullets.

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

She mentioned the gunman checked out one among her teachers in the eye and said, “Good night” earlier than taking pictures her.

Miah told her story by way of a CNN producer. She did not need to communicate on digicam and declined to talk to any men following her expertise with the varsity capturing and solely felt comfy speaking to women, the broadcaster mentioned. NBC Information couldn't instantly confirm 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 said. She mentioned she heard “unhappy music” taking part in, believing the gunman put it on. 

When requested what the music was, she mentioned it sounded like, “I need people to die music.”

Miah said that when the gunman went into the other room she smeared a buddy’s blood on herself to look lifeless. She also mentioned she and a friend grabbed their teacher’s telephone and known as 911, telling a dispatcher, “Please ship help as a result of we’re in hassle.” 

Within the Tuesday horror, 19 youngsters and two lecturers had been killed, and one other 17 were wounded.

A Robb Elementary trainer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, instructed NBC Information 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 underneath 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 severe lockdown” and “then there was shooting within the windows,” he stated in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Friday.

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

“He shot the trainer and then he shot the kids,” Samuel mentioned. 

He defined that he survived by enjoying useless after he bought 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 lifeless so he wouldn’t shoot me.”

When police finally entered the room and shot the gunman, the kids have been evacuated. In the rushed exit, Samuel saw the bodies of his teacher and different pupils.

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

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

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

In a news conference Thursday, Texas officers walked back previously launched 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 primary 911 name to stop the bloodbath.

Officials shared a new timeline revealing that at 11:28 a.m. Tuesday the gunman crashed a car near the varsity and shot at two people outside a funeral dwelling throughout the street, then climbed over a fence to Robb Elementary.

Officers stated the first 911 name got here in at 11:30 a.m., the gunman entered the varsity 10 minutes later and 4 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 until about an hour later, Victor Escalon, the South Texas regional director for the state Division of Public Security, stated Thursday.

Texas investigators advised NBC News victims of the shooting have been present in four classrooms.

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

Mother and father and loved ones who were gathered exterior Robb Elementary in the course of the shooting begged and shouted at police to enter and shield their kids.

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

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

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

Marshals told NBC Information in a statement that deputy marshals “by no means arrested or positioned anybody in handcuffs while securing the crime scene perimeter.”

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

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

Pete Williams and Jonathan Dienst contributed.