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

Survivors of the Texas elementary faculty taking pictures are recounting the gunman's eerie remaining phrases of "Good night time" and "You are all gonna die" earlier than opening hearth, and how some performed useless 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 checked out one in every of her lecturers in the eye and said, “Good night time” earlier than shooting her.

Miah informed her story by means of a CNN producer. She didn't wish to converse on camera and declined to speak to any men following her expertise with the school shooting and solely felt snug chatting with women, the broadcaster stated. NBC News couldn't instantly verify the account.

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

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

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

Miah stated that when the gunman went into the other room she smeared a good friend’s blood on herself to look lifeless. She additionally mentioned she and a friend grabbed their instructor’s phone and referred to as 911, telling a dispatcher, “Please ship help because we’re in bother.” 

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

A Robb Elementary teacher, 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 youngsters started to hide under their desks in the class. 

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

“It was a normal day till my teacher mentioned we’re on severe lockdown” and “then there was taking pictures within the windows,” he stated 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,” and then began to shoot. 

“He shot the instructor and then he shot the kids,” Samuel mentioned. 

He defined that he survived by taking part in useless after he received 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 played lifeless so he wouldn’t shoot me.”

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

“There was blood on the ground,” he mentioned. “And there were youngsters ... full of blood.” 

The investigation into the capturing is ongoing, and many 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 information convention Thursday, Texas officers walked back beforehand launched info, saying the gunman wasn’t confronted by a faculty police officer and entered the school building unobstructed.

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

Officials shared a brand new timeline revealing that at 11:28 a.m. Tuesday the gunman crashed a vehicle near the school and shot at two people outside a funeral residence throughout 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 varsity 10 minutes later and four minutes later police have been on the scene. The primary officers on the scene known as for backup, but tactical groups didn’t arrive till about an hour later, Victor Escalon, the South Texas regional director for the state Department of Public Security, stated Thursday.

Texas investigators advised NBC News victims of the capturing have been found in 4 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 large Latino group.

Mother and father and family members who were gathered exterior Robb Elementary throughout the taking pictures begged and shouted at police to enter and defend their children.

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

“The police were doing nothing,” she said to the paper. “They have been just standing outdoors the fence. They weren’t going in there or operating wherever.” 

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

Marshals told NBC News in a statement 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 community that was gathering across the school."

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

Pete Williams and Jonathan Dienst contributed.