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

Survivors of the Texas elementary faculty shooting are recounting the gunman's eerie closing phrases of "Good night time" and "You're all gonna die" earlier than opening hearth, and the way some played useless to be spared within the spray of bullets.

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

She mentioned the gunman looked at one of her lecturers in the eye and said, “Good night time” earlier than shooting her.

Miah instructed her story by way of a CNN producer. She did not want to communicate on digicam and declined to speak to any males following her experience with the college taking pictures and solely felt snug speaking to ladies, the broadcaster said. 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 fire, Miah stated. She mentioned she heard “sad music” enjoying, believing the gunman put it on. 

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

Miah said that when the gunman went into the opposite room she smeared a pal’s blood on herself to look useless. She additionally said she and a friend grabbed their teacher’s telephone and referred to as 911, telling a dispatcher, “Please ship help because we’re in trouble.” 

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

A Robb Elementary instructor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, instructed NBC News that a Raptor alert, a program designed to alert staff of a lockdown, went off after photographs have been fired and youngsters started to cover beneath their desks in the class. 

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

“It was a traditional day till my instructor mentioned we’re on severe lockdown” and “then there was taking pictures within the windows,” he mentioned in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Friday.

He said 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 children,” Samuel mentioned. 

He explained that he survived by taking part in useless after he obtained 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 performed lifeless so he wouldn’t shoot me.”

When police finally entered the room and shot the gunman, the children have been evacuated. Within the rushed exit, Samuel noticed the bodies of his trainer and other pupils.

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

The investigation into the capturing 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 on the scene.

In a information conference Thursday, Texas officials walked back previously launched 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 call to cease the massacre.

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

Officials mentioned the first 911 name got here in at 11:30 a.m., the gunman entered the varsity 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 until about an hour later, Victor Escalon, the South Texas regional director for the state Department of Public Safety, mentioned Thursday.

Texas investigators instructed NBC Information victims of the taking pictures have been present in four school rooms.

Robb Elementary serves second by means of fourth grade students within the small town of Uvalde, which is about 75 miles from the Mexico borders and residential to a big Latino community.

Parents and loved ones who had been gathered outdoors Robb Elementary in the course of the capturing begged and shouted at police to enter and shield their children.

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

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

She stated at first she waited patiently then when she turned more fervent along with her pleas, U.S. marshals allegedly arrested her for intervening in an lively investigation. 

Marshals informed NBC Information in an announcement 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 within the midst of the grief-stricken neighborhood that was gathering around the college."

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

Pete Williams and Jonathan Dienst contributed.