UVALDE, Texas – An 11-year-old girl said she smeared herself in her friend’s blood and played dead to survive the massacre inside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
Miah Cerrillo spoke to CNN about her experience. She said her class was watching “Lilo and Stitch” in a classroom shared by two teachers, Eva Mireles and Irma Garcia. Both teachers were killed.
Recommended Videos
She said a teacher went to lock the door but the shooter was already there and shot out the window in the door. She told CNN the shooter made eye contact with one of the teachers, said, “Goodnight,” and then shot her.
Cerrillo said he then opened fire. She was injured by bullet fragments, later treated at a hospital and released. She told CNN that clumps of her hair were falling out now.
CNN reported that after the gunman opened fire in Cerrillo’s classroom, he went through a door into an adjoining classroom. She said she heard screams and gunfire from that classroom. After the gunfire stoped she said the shooter started playing loud, sad music.
She told CNN her and a friend managed to get her dead teacher’s phone and call 911 for help.
“Miah said she was scared the gunman would return to her classroom to kill her and a few other surviving friends. So, she dipped her hands in the blood of a classmate -- who lay next to her, already dead -- and then smeared the blood all over herself to play dead,” CNN reported.
She told CNN it felt like three hours as she lay there, covered in her classmate’s blood. She said she assumed police hadn’t arrived on the scene yet.
“She said afterward, she overheard talk of police waiting outside the school. As she recounted this part of the story to CNN, she started crying, saying she just didn’t understand why they didn’t come inside and rescue them,” CNN reported.
The family has started a GoFundMe page to raise money to help pay for therapy.
Remembering the victims
Local 4′s sister station, KSAT, is sharing information about the victims of the shooting.
- Nevaeh Bravo, 10
- Jackie Cazares, 10
- Makenna Lee Elrod, 10
- Jose Flores Jr., 10
- Eliahna ‘Ellie’ Garcia, 9
- Irma Garcia, fourth-grade teacher
- Amerie Jo Garza, 10
- Uziyah Garcia, 10
- Xavier Lopez, 10
- Jayce Carmelo Luevanos, 10
- Tess Mata, 10
- Miranda Mathis, 11
- Eva Mireles, 4th-grade teacher
- Alithia Ramirez, 10
- Annabell Rodriguez, 10
- Maite Rodriguez
- Alexandria Aniyah Rubio, 10
- Layla Salazar, 10
- Jaliah Nicole Silguero, 10
- Eliahana Cruz Torres
- Rojelio Torres, 10