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

Survivors of the Texas elementary college taking pictures are recounting the gunman's eerie final phrases of "Good evening" and "You are all gonna die" earlier than opening hearth, and how some played lifeless 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 stated the gunman checked out one of her lecturers in the eye and stated, “Good evening” earlier than taking pictures her.

Miah advised her story through a CNN producer. She didn't need to communicate on digicam and declined to talk to any men following her expertise with the school capturing and only felt comfortable chatting with ladies, the broadcaster mentioned. NBC Information couldn't immediately 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 stated. She said she heard “sad music” playing, believing the gunman put it on. 

When asked what the music was, she mentioned it gave the impression of, “I need individuals to die music.”

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

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

A Robb Elementary teacher, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told NBC Information that a Raptor alert, a program designed to alert staff of a lockdown, went off after shots were fired and youngsters started to hide underneath their desks in the class. 

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

“It was a standard day until my instructor 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 stated that the gunman barged into the classroom, introduced, “You’re all gonna die,” and then started to shoot. 

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

He explained that he survived by enjoying lifeless after he bought hit within the leg with shrapnel that hit a chair between him and the shooter.

“I believe he was aiming at me,” Samuel stated. “I performed dead so he wouldn’t shoot me.”

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

“There was blood on the bottom,” he stated. “And there were children ... full of blood.” 

The investigation into the taking pictures is ongoing, and many 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 back 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 stop the bloodbath.

Officers shared a new timeline revealing that at 11:28 a.m. Tuesday the gunman crashed a automobile near the school and shot at two people exterior a funeral residence throughout the street, then climbed over a fence to Robb Elementary.

Officials stated the primary 911 call got here in at 11:30 a.m., the gunman entered the varsity 10 minutes later and 4 minutes later police have been on the scene. The primary officers on the scene known as for backup, but tactical teams didn’t arrive till about an hour later, Victor Escalon, the South Texas regional director for the state Department of Public Security, mentioned Thursday.

Texas investigators instructed NBC News victims of the capturing had been found in four lecture rooms.

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

Parents and loved ones who have been gathered outside Robb Elementary in the course of the shooting begged and shouted at police to enter and defend their children.

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

“The police were doing nothing,” she mentioned to the paper. “They had been simply standing outside the fence. They weren’t getting 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 advised 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 group that was gathering around the faculty."

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

Pete Williams and Jonathan Dienst contributed.