4th grade survivor of Texas school capturing describes gunman’s phrases earlier than opening fire

Survivors of the Texas elementary school shooting are recounting the gunman's eerie remaining words of "Good night" and "You are all gonna die" earlier than opening fire, and how some played dead to be spared in the spray of bullets.

Fourth grade student Miah Cerrillo, 11, informed 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 in every of her lecturers in the eye and stated, “Good evening” before capturing her.

Miah told her story by way of a CNN producer. She did not need to converse on digicam and declined to speak to any males following her expertise with the varsity capturing and solely felt comfortable talking to girls, the broadcaster mentioned. NBC News could not instantly verify the account.

Miah herself was hit by fragments in the hail of bullets, CNN reported.

After firing photographs in her classroom, the shooter went into the adjoining classroom and opened fire, Miah said. She mentioned she heard “sad music” playing, believing the gunman put it on. 

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

Miah said that when the gunman went into the opposite room she smeared a pal’s blood on herself to look lifeless. She additionally mentioned 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.” 

Within the Tuesday horror, 19 youngsters and two teachers had been killed, and another 17 were wounded.

A Robb Elementary trainer, who spoke on the situation of anonymity, advised NBC News that a Raptor alert, a program designed to alert staff of a lockdown, went off after photographs had been fired and children started to hide underneath their desks within the class. 

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

“It was a normal day till my teacher stated we’re on severe lockdown” and “then there was taking pictures in the home windows,” he said 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 began to shoot. 

“He shot the teacher and then he shot the youngsters,” Samuel said. 

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

“I feel he was aiming at me,” Samuel stated. “I played useless so he wouldn’t shoot me.”

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

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

The investigation into the taking pictures is ongoing, and many questions remain 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 conference Thursday, Texas officers walked back beforehand released information, saying the gunman wasn’t confronted by a faculty police officer and entered the varsity constructing unobstructed.

Police now say it took over an hour from the first 911 name 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 folks outside a funeral house across the street, then climbed over a fence to Robb Elementary.

Officers said the primary 911 name got here in at 11:30 a.m., the gunman entered the varsity 10 minutes later and four minutes later police were on the scene. The primary officers on the scene referred to as for backup, but tactical groups didn’t arrive until about an hour later, Victor Escalon, the South Texas regional director for the state Department of Public Safety, stated Thursday.

Texas investigators advised NBC News victims of the taking pictures were present in 4 school rooms.

Robb Elementary serves second by means 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 community.

Mother and father and loved ones who have been gathered outdoors Robb Elementary during the capturing begged and shouted at police to enter and shield their youngsters.

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

“The police were doing nothing,” she said to the paper. “They have been simply standing outdoors the fence. They weren’t getting into there or operating anywhere.” 

She mentioned at first she waited patiently then when she turned extra fervent 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 anyone 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 college."

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

Pete Williams and Jonathan Dienst contributed.