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

Survivors of the Texas elementary faculty shooting are recounting the gunman's eerie last words of "Good night" and "You are all gonna die" before opening hearth, and how some performed dead to be spared within the spray of bullets.

Fourth grade pupil Miah Cerrillo, 11, informed CNN her class was watching “Lilo and Stitch” when the shooter appeared Tuesday at Robb Elementary in Uvalde.

She said the gunman looked at considered one of her teachers within the eye and stated, “Good night” earlier than taking pictures her.

Miah advised her story via a CNN producer. She did not need to communicate on digital camera and declined to talk to any men following her expertise with the varsity taking pictures and solely felt comfy speaking to girls, 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 shots in her classroom, the shooter went into the adjoining classroom and opened fireplace, Miah mentioned. She mentioned she heard “unhappy music” enjoying, believing the gunman put it on. 

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

Miah stated that when the gunman went into the opposite room she smeared a friend’s blood on herself to look lifeless. She additionally said she and a friend grabbed their instructor’s phone and referred to as 911, telling a dispatcher, “Please send assist because we’re in hassle.” 

In the Tuesday horror, 19 youngsters and two academics had been killed, and one other 17 have been wounded.

A Robb Elementary instructor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, informed NBC Information that a Raptor alert, a program designed to alert employees of a lockdown, went off after photographs were fired and youngsters began to hide underneath their desks in the class. 

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

“It was a traditional day until my teacher stated we’re on extreme lockdown” and “then there was capturing in the home 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 teacher after which he shot the kids,” Samuel stated. 

He defined that he survived by playing useless after he obtained hit within the leg with shrapnel that hit a chair between him and the shooter.

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

When police lastly entered the room and shot the gunman, the children were evacuated. In the rushed exit, Samuel noticed the our bodies of his teacher 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 plenty 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 news convention Thursday, Texas officials walked back previously launched info, 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 primary 911 name to stop the bloodbath.

Officials shared a new timeline revealing that at 11:28 a.m. Tuesday the gunman crashed a vehicle near the college and shot at two people exterior a funeral residence throughout the road, then climbed over a fence to Robb Elementary.

Officers stated the first 911 name got here in at 11:30 a.m., the gunman entered the college 10 minutes later and four minutes later police have been on the scene. The primary officers on the scene called for backup, however tactical teams didn’t arrive till about an hour later, Victor Escalon, the South Texas regional director for the state Division of Public Safety, stated Thursday.

Texas investigators advised NBC News victims of the capturing had been found in four classrooms.

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 community.

Mother and father and loved ones who have been gathered exterior Robb Elementary in the course of the capturing begged and shouted at police to enter and shield their kids.

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

“The police had been doing nothing,” she said to the paper. “They have been simply standing exterior the fence. They weren’t entering into there or operating wherever.” 

She mentioned at first she waited patiently then when she grew to become 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 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 college."

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

Pete Williams and Jonathan Dienst contributed.