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

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

Fourth grade student Miah Cerrillo, 11, informed 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 lecturers within the eye and said, “Good evening” earlier than taking pictures her.

Miah instructed her story by a CNN producer. She did not want to communicate on digital camera and declined to talk to any men following her experience with the varsity taking pictures and solely felt comfy chatting with ladies, the broadcaster stated. NBC News could not immediately verify 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” enjoying, believing the gunman put it on. 

When asked what the music was, she mentioned it sounded like, “I would like individuals 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 additionally stated she and a pal grabbed their teacher’s cellphone and known as 911, telling a dispatcher, “Please send help as a result of we’re in bother.” 

Within the Tuesday horror, 19 children and two teachers had been killed, and another 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 workers of a lockdown, went off after pictures have been fired and children started to cover under their desks within the class. 

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

“It was a traditional day until my trainer stated we’re on severe lockdown” and “then there was taking pictures in the windows,” he stated 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 and then he shot the children,” Samuel mentioned. 

He defined that he survived by playing dead after he received 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 played lifeless 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 noticed the bodies of his instructor and different pupils.

“There was blood on the ground,” he stated. “And there were kids ... stuffed with blood.” 

The investigation into the taking pictures 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 at the scene.

In a information conference Thursday, Texas officials walked again previously released data, saying the gunman wasn’t confronted by a college police officer and entered the varsity constructing unobstructed.

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

Officers shared a new timeline revealing that at 11:28 a.m. Tuesday the gunman crashed a automobile close to the varsity and shot at two folks outside a funeral residence throughout the street, then climbed over a fence to Robb Elementary.

Officers said the first 911 call came 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 known as for backup, however tactical teams didn’t arrive until about an hour later, Victor Escalon, the South Texas regional director for the state Department of Public Safety, mentioned Thursday.

Texas investigators advised NBC Information victims of the taking pictures were found in 4 classrooms.

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 home to a big Latino neighborhood.

Mother and father and family members who have been gathered exterior Robb Elementary in the course of the shooting begged and shouted at police to enter and shield their youngsters.

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

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

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

Marshals instructed NBC News in an announcement that deputy marshals “by no means 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 neighborhood that was gathering across the faculty."

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

Pete Williams and Jonathan Dienst contributed.