Miah Cerrillo, 11-year-old survivor of the Uvalde massacre, said she covered herself with her deceased friend’s blood and played dead while the shooter went into an adjoining classroom.
Miah spoke to a female CNN correspondent because she was afraid to speak on camera or to a man, as her mother explained she is traumatized and can’t sleep. Miah covered herself in a blanket during the interview.
Miah explained she and her classmates were watching the movie “Lilo and Stitch” in a classroom shared by two teachers, Eva Mireles and Irma Garcia, when they got word that a shooter was in the building. When one of the teachers went to lock the door, the gunman was there already and shot out the window in the door.
Miah said he made eye contact with one of the teachers, said, “Goodnight,” and then shot her.
The shooter then opened fire on the other teacher and classmates in the room, then went into an adjoining room where she heard screams and more shots fired. When the shooting stopped, Miah said the shooter played loud, sad music.
When he was gone from their room, Miah and a friend managed to reach their teacher’s cell phone to call 911, and told the dispatcher, “Please come … we’re in trouble.” She was afraid the shooter would return, 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.
Miah said it felt like three hours she laid there covered in blood, assuming the police had not come 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.
