4th grade survivor of Texas college shooting describes gunman’s phrases earlier than opening fire

Survivors of the Texas elementary school capturing are recounting the gunman's eerie closing phrases of "Good evening" and "You are all gonna die" earlier than opening fireplace, and how some played useless to be spared within the spray of bullets.

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

She said the gunman looked at one in every of her academics in the eye and mentioned, “Good evening” before taking pictures her.

Miah told her story by way of a CNN producer. She did not want to communicate on digicam and declined to speak to any men following her expertise with the varsity shooting and solely felt snug speaking to girls, the broadcaster said. NBC Information could not immediately confirm 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 fireplace, Miah mentioned. She mentioned she heard “unhappy music” taking part in, believing the gunman put it on. 

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

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

Within the Tuesday horror, 19 children and two teachers have been killed, and one other 17 have been wounded.

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

Samuel Salinas, 10, was a student in trainer Irma Garcia’s class on Tuesday when the college taking pictures unfolded.

“It was a standard day until my trainer said we’re on extreme lockdown” and “then there was taking pictures within 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,” after which began to shoot. 

“He shot the teacher after which he shot the youngsters,” Samuel mentioned. 

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

“I think he was aiming at me,” Samuel said. “I played lifeless so he wouldn’t shoot me.”

When police lastly entered the room and shot the gunman, the kids were evacuated. In the rushed exit, Samuel noticed the our bodies of his instructor and other pupils.

“There was blood on the ground,” he stated. “And there have been children ... stuffed with blood.” 

The investigation into the capturing is ongoing, and plenty of 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 officials walked back beforehand released data, saying the gunman wasn’t confronted by a college police officer and entered the school constructing 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 automobile close to the varsity and shot at two people outdoors a funeral house throughout the street, then climbed over a fence to Robb Elementary.

Officers 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 had been on the scene. The primary officers on the scene called for backup, however tactical groups didn’t arrive until about an hour later, Victor Escalon, the South Texas regional director for the state Division of Public Security, stated Thursday.

Texas investigators informed NBC Information victims of the shooting were found in four classrooms.

Robb Elementary serves second through 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 outside Robb Elementary through the capturing begged and shouted at police to enter and shield their children.

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

“The police have been doing nothing,” she mentioned to the paper. “They have been just standing outside the fence. They weren’t entering into there or working wherever.” 

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

Marshals informed NBC News in an announcement that deputy marshals “never 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 neighborhood that was gathering across the faculty."

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

Pete Williams and Jonathan Dienst contributed.