An 11-year-old student survived the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas by smearing her friend’s blood on herself to appear dead.
Fourth grade student Miah Cerrillo told her class was watching Lilo and Stitch as part of an end of the year celebration when the shooter entered her classroom.
Word got out that there was a shooter in the building, but when one of the teachers got to the door to secure the classroom, he was right there. The gunman made eye contact with the teacher and shot out the door.
He then looked the teacher in the eye and said ‘Good night’ before fatally shooting her, Miah told CNN.
In Tuesday’s massacre, 19 children and two teachers were . Another 17 people were wounded. All of the victims were in one classroom.
After firing shots into her classroom, Miah said the gunman went into an adjoining classroom and opened fire. At that point she could hear screams and more gunfire.
Miah said she believed the gunman then started playing sad music, describing it as ‘I want people to die music.’
While the gunman was in the other room, Miah put her hands in her friend’s blood, who appeared to be dead and bleeding out, and smeared it all over herself so she could play dead if the gunman came back into the room.
She and another friend then took her dead teacher’s cellphone and called 911 for help. She said she repeatedly told a dispatcher, ‘please send help because we’re in trouble.’
The 11-year-old said that, at the time, they thought police just hadn’t made it to the school yet. She said the whole ordeal felt as if it lasted a total of three hours, when in reality it lasted about one.
Following the shooting, learning that police had been waiting outside the school for nearly an hour brought the girl to tears. She had said she didn’t understand why they didn’t come inside the building to save them.
She told CNN she hoped sharing her story would help people ‘really realize’ what it’s like being in a school shooting. While being interviewed, she declined speaking with any men because of what happened, and also did not appear on camera.
Miah was hit by fragments of bullets, and will require treatment to recover, her family said in a . The fundraiser is also to get her into therapy.
.
