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

Survivors of the Texas elementary school taking pictures are recounting the gunman's eerie closing phrases of "Good night" and "You're all gonna die" earlier than opening hearth, 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 Sew” when the shooter appeared Tuesday at Robb Elementary in Uvalde.

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

Miah advised her story through a CNN producer. She did not want to speak on camera and declined to talk to any men following her expertise with the school shooting and only felt comfy speaking to ladies, the broadcaster said. NBC Information couldn't immediately confirm the account.

Miah herself was hit by fragments in 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 “unhappy music” playing, believing the gunman put it on. 

When asked what the music was, she stated it sounded like, “I want individuals to die music.”

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

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

A Robb Elementary instructor, who spoke on the situation of anonymity, told NBC Information that a Raptor alert, a program designed to alert staff of a lockdown, went off after pictures had been fired and youngsters started to cover beneath their desks within the class. 

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

“It was a traditional day until 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 instructor after which he shot the youngsters,” Samuel mentioned. 

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

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

When police finally entered the room and shot the gunman, the children have been evacuated. In the rushed exit, Samuel noticed the bodies of his trainer and different pupils.

“There was blood on the ground,” he mentioned. “And there have been kids ... stuffed with blood.” 

The investigation into the shooting is ongoing, and lots 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 convention Thursday, Texas officers walked again beforehand launched info, saying the gunman wasn’t confronted by a school police officer and entered the college constructing unobstructed.

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

Officers shared a brand new timeline revealing that at 11:28 a.m. Tuesday the gunman crashed a automobile near the school and shot at two individuals exterior a funeral home throughout the road, then climbed over a fence to Robb Elementary.

Officers mentioned the first 911 call 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 first 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, stated Thursday.

Texas investigators instructed NBC Information victims of the capturing had been present in four lecture rooms.

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

Mother and father and family members who had been gathered exterior Robb Elementary throughout the shooting begged and shouted at police to enter and protect their youngsters.

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

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

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

Marshals instructed 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 group that was gathering around the school."

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

Pete Williams and Jonathan Dienst contributed.