4th grade survivor of Texas school shooting describes gunman’s words before opening fire

Survivors of the Texas elementary faculty capturing are recounting the gunman's eerie closing phrases of "Good evening" and "You are all gonna die" earlier than opening fire, and the way some performed useless to be spared in 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 mentioned the gunman checked out one among her lecturers within the eye and stated, “Good evening” before capturing her.

Miah instructed her story by way of a CNN producer. She did not want to communicate on camera and declined to talk to any men following her experience with the college shooting and solely felt comfortable talking to women, the broadcaster mentioned. NBC Information could not 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 mentioned. She mentioned she heard “unhappy music” taking part in, believing the gunman put it on. 

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

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

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

A Robb Elementary teacher, who spoke on the situation of anonymity, informed NBC Information that a Raptor alert, a program designed to alert staff of a lockdown, went off after photographs had been fired and children began to hide beneath their desks in the class. 

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

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

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

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

He explained that he survived by taking part in dead after he got hit in the leg with shrapnel that hit a chair between him and the shooter.

“I believe he was aiming at me,” Samuel mentioned. “I performed useless so he wouldn’t shoot me.”

When police finally entered the room and shot the gunman, the youngsters have been evacuated. In the rushed exit, Samuel saw the bodies of his trainer and other pupils.

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

The investigation into the capturing 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 information convention Thursday, Texas officers walked again previously launched information, saying the gunman wasn’t confronted by a school police officer and entered the college building unobstructed.

Police now say it took over an hour from the first 911 call to cease the massacre.

Officers shared a brand new timeline revealing that at 11:28 a.m. Tuesday the gunman crashed a automobile close to the college and shot at two individuals outside a funeral residence across the road, then climbed over a fence to Robb Elementary.

Officers mentioned the primary 911 name got here 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 called 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, stated Thursday.

Texas investigators told NBC News victims of the capturing were found in four classrooms.

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

Dad and mom and family members who had been gathered outside Robb Elementary through the capturing begged and shouted at police to enter and protect their kids.

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

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

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

Marshals advised NBC News in an announcement that deputy marshals “never arrested or positioned anybody in handcuffs while securing the crime scene perimeter.”

“Our deputy marshals maintained order and peace in 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.