4th grade survivor of Texas college taking pictures describes gunman’s phrases before opening fireplace

Survivors of the Texas elementary faculty taking pictures are recounting the gunman's eerie last words of "Good evening" and "You're all gonna die" earlier than opening hearth, and the way some performed dead to be spared within the spray of bullets.

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

She stated the gunman checked out one in every of her teachers within the eye and mentioned, “Good evening” before capturing her.

Miah advised her story via a CNN producer. She didn't wish to converse on digicam and declined to talk to any men following her expertise with the varsity shooting and solely felt comfy talking to girls, the broadcaster said. NBC News could not instantly confirm the account.

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

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

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

Miah mentioned that when the gunman went into the other room she smeared a pal’s blood on herself to look lifeless. She additionally stated she and a buddy grabbed their trainer’s cellphone and referred to as 911, telling a dispatcher, “Please send assist as a result of we’re in trouble.” 

In the Tuesday horror, 19 kids and two academics had been killed, and another 17 were wounded.

A Robb Elementary trainer, who spoke on the situation of anonymity, instructed NBC News that a Raptor alert, a program designed to alert staff of a lockdown, went off after pictures were fired and kids started to cover underneath their desks within the class. 

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

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

He mentioned that the gunman barged into the classroom, announced, “You’re all gonna die,” and then began to shoot. 

“He shot the instructor after which he shot the youngsters,” Samuel stated. 

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

When police lastly entered the room and shot the gunman, the kids had been evacuated. Within the rushed exit, Samuel noticed the bodies of his teacher and different pupils.

“There was blood on the ground,” he mentioned. “And there have been youngsters ... 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 convention Thursday, Texas officials walked again previously launched data, saying the gunman wasn’t confronted by a school police officer and entered the varsity constructing unobstructed.

Police now say it took over an hour from the primary 911 call to stop the bloodbath.

Officers 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 folks exterior a funeral house across the street, then climbed over a fence to Robb Elementary.

Officials stated the primary 911 call came in at 11:30 a.m., the gunman entered the college 10 minutes later and four minutes later police had been on the scene. The first officers on the scene known as 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, said Thursday.

Texas investigators instructed NBC Information victims of the capturing had been present in 4 lecture rooms.

Robb Elementary serves second via 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 neighborhood.

Mother and father and family members who were gathered outdoors Robb Elementary during the shooting begged and shouted at police to enter and shield their kids.

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

“The police were doing nothing,” she mentioned to the paper. “They have been simply standing outside the fence. They weren’t going in there or working anywhere.” 

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 instructed NBC News in a press release that deputy marshals “by no means arrested or placed 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 school."

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

Pete Williams and Jonathan Dienst contributed.