- wording
- BBC News World
June 8, 2022
image source, Getty Images
As soon as the killer left class, Miah, frightened and with injuries to her shoulders and head, thought quickly.
He feared that the young man who had shot and killed several of his classmates at the school in Uvalde, Texas, would return to the classroom.
Then he covered himself with the blood of one of his deceased classmates, looked for his teacher’s cell phone and called the police.
Miah Cerrillo, 11, told the United States Congress this Wednesday by video what he experienced at the Robb school in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24.
That day, Salvador Ramos, 18, entered the school with a rifle and shot and killed 19 minors and two teachers.
Miah was in the fourth grade class where Ramos perpetrated his massacre and recounted how Ramos entered the classroom and began shooting at the terrified students and the teacher.
“Land told my teacher ‘good night‘ and shot him in the headMia said.
It was a fourth grade classroom, so the students were 10 and 11 years old.
“And then he shot some of my classmates and the blackboard,” he continued.
image source, Getty Images
Miah recounted how, in this extreme situation, her survival instinct led her to seek refuge in the place where her classmates’ school supplies were stacked.
“When I went to the backpacks, he shot my friend, who was next to me,” he recalled.
In a break from the shooting, and seeing his partner shot, he used his wits.
“I thought (the assailant) was going to come back to the classroom, so I took his (friend’s) blood and put it everywhere.”
And later, seeing that Ramos was no longer there, he tried to find help.
“I grabbed my teacher’s phone and called 911,” the US emergency number.
“I told them we needed help, to send the police to the classroom,” he explained.
The shooter remained barricaded in the school for about 90 minutes until he was neutralized by the police, according to the authorities, who have received strong criticism for his slowness in acting.
“She’s not the same girl anymore”
In the video presented to Congress, the survivor also answered some questions. The first was what she would like to see changed at her school.
Miah replied “be safe” as she acknowledged that she doesn’t feel safe at school.
“I don’t want it to happen again,” he said. Asked if she believes a similar tragedy could happen again, the girl responded by nodding her head.
Following Miah Cerrillo’s testimony, his visibly distraught father spoke in person at the hearing.
image source, Getty Images
Miguel Cerrillo, Miah’s father
Miguel Cerrillo tearfully assured Congress that since what happened, Miah “is not the same girl with whom she used to play and run.”
“I came (to the hearing) because I might have lost my little daughter… Something really has to change something,” she said.
“Schools are no longer safe. I am asking for a change.”
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