4th grade survivor of Texas college taking pictures describes gunman’s phrases before opening hearth

Survivors of the Texas elementary college taking pictures are recounting the gunman's eerie last phrases of "Good evening" and "You are all gonna die" before opening fireplace, and how some performed dead to be spared within 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 said the gunman looked at one in every of her teachers in the eye and stated, “Good evening” earlier than shooting her.

Miah told her story via a CNN producer. She didn't need to converse on camera and declined to talk to any males following her expertise with the varsity capturing and only felt comfy chatting with women, the broadcaster mentioned. NBC News 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 stated she heard “sad music” taking part in, believing the gunman put it on. 

When asked what the music was, she said it appeared like, “I need folks to die music.”

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

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

A Robb Elementary trainer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, advised NBC News that a Raptor alert, a program designed to alert staff of a lockdown, went off after shots had been fired and kids started to cover under their desks within the class. 

Samuel Salinas, 10, was a student in instructor Irma Garcia’s class on Tuesday when the college shooting unfolded.

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

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

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

He defined that he survived by playing useless after he acquired 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 useless so he wouldn’t shoot me.”

When police lastly entered the room and shot the gunman, the youngsters had been evacuated. In the rushed exit, Samuel saw the bodies of his teacher and other pupils.

“There was blood on the ground,” he mentioned. “And there have been children ... full of blood.” 

The investigation into the taking pictures is ongoing, and lots of questions stay 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 beforehand released 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 massacre.

Officials 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 folks outside a funeral home throughout the road, then climbed over a fence to Robb Elementary.

Officials stated the first 911 name got here in at 11:30 a.m., the gunman entered the school 10 minutes later and 4 minutes later police had been on the scene. The first officers on the scene known as for backup, however 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 Information victims of the taking pictures were present in 4 school rooms.

Robb Elementary serves second by means of 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 neighborhood.

Mother and father and family members who were gathered outdoors Robb Elementary through the capturing begged and shouted at police to enter and defend their kids.

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

“The police were doing nothing,” she stated to the paper. “They had been simply standing outside the fence. They weren’t getting in there or operating anyplace.” 

She said at first she waited patiently then when she grew to become more fervent along with her pleas, U.S. marshals allegedly arrested her for intervening in an energetic investigation. 

Marshals informed NBC News in a statement that deputy marshals “never arrested or positioned anybody in handcuffs whereas 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 faculty."

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

Pete Williams and Jonathan Dienst contributed.