4th grade survivor of Texas college capturing describes gunman’s words earlier than opening fire

Survivors of the Texas elementary faculty capturing are recounting the gunman's eerie last words of "Good evening" and "You are all gonna die" before opening fire, and the way some performed lifeless to be spared within the spray of bullets.

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

She stated the gunman looked at certainly one of her academics within the eye and stated, “Good night time” earlier than shooting her.

Miah told her story through a CNN producer. She didn't wish to converse on digital camera and declined to speak to any males following her expertise with the varsity capturing and only felt comfy talking to women, the broadcaster mentioned. NBC Information could not immediately confirm the account.

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

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

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

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

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

A Robb Elementary instructor, who spoke on the situation of anonymity, told NBC News that a Raptor alert, a program designed to alert workers of a lockdown, went off after photographs have been fired and kids began to cover below 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 normal day till my instructor said we’re on extreme lockdown” and “then there was shooting within the home windows,” he mentioned 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 started to shoot. 

“He shot the instructor and then he shot the children,” Samuel stated. 

He defined that he survived by playing lifeless after he bought hit in the leg with shrapnel that hit a chair between him and the shooter.

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

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

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

The investigation into the taking pictures is ongoing, and plenty 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 news convention Thursday, Texas officials walked again beforehand released data, saying the gunman wasn’t confronted by a faculty police officer and entered the college constructing unobstructed.

Police now say it took over an hour from the primary 911 name to cease the massacre.

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

Officers mentioned the primary 911 call got here in at 11:30 a.m., the gunman entered the school 10 minutes later and 4 minutes later police had been on the scene. The primary officers on the scene called 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, mentioned Thursday.

Texas investigators told NBC News victims of the shooting had been found in 4 school rooms.

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

Mother and father and family members who had been gathered exterior Robb Elementary through the taking pictures begged and shouted at police to enter and protect their youngsters.

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

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

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

Marshals advised NBC News in a press release that deputy marshals “never arrested or placed anybody 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 faculty."

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

Pete Williams and Jonathan Dienst contributed.