WASHINGTON 鈥� Miah Cerrillo, an 11-year-old in fourth grade who survived the school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, said she covered herself in another student鈥檚 blood to trick the shooter into thinking she was already dead.
Cerrillo, wearing a sunflower tank top and her hair pulled back into a ponytail, spoke softly as she answered questions for two minutes on video about what she endured that day in the classroom, just two weeks after she witnessed her friends and teacher die in a deadly school shooting.
鈥淗e shot my teacher and told my teacher good night and shot her in the head,鈥� she said in the prerecorded video shown at a hearing before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform. 鈥淎nd then he shot some of my classmates and the white board.鈥�
Cerrillo was the youngest of a small group of Uvalde survivors and family members who testified at a U.S. House hearing Wednesday about the devastation wrought by gun violence in their communities.
On May 24, an 18-year-old gunman armed with two assault rifles entered the school building, killing 19 children and two teachers and injuring 17 others.
That day, Cerrillo said she and her classmates were watching a movie. Her teacher received an email and then got up to lock the door 鈥� that鈥檚 when the teacher made eye contact with the gunman in the hallway, Cerrillo said.
At that point, the teacher told the students to 鈥済o hide.鈥� Cerrillo hid behind her teacher鈥檚 desk among the backpacks. The shooter then shot 鈥渢he little window,鈥� presumably part of the door to the hallway. She said the gunman entered a neighboring classroom and was able to access her classroom through an adjoining door. That鈥檚 when he started shooting.
One of the students who was shot, a friend of hers, was next to her among the backpacks.
鈥淚 thought [the gunman] was going to come back to the room, so I grabbed the blood and I put it all over me,鈥� she said.
She said she 鈥渟tayed quiet鈥� and then she grabbed her teacher鈥檚 phone and called 911.
鈥淚 told [the operator] that we need help and to send the police [to my] classroom,鈥� she said.
Cerrillo added that she did not feel safe in school and did not 鈥渨ant it to happen again.鈥� An off-camera questioner asked if she thought a shooting like this will happen again and Cerrillo affirmatively nodded.
Cerrillo was calm and quiet. She didn鈥檛 cry. But some of the adults from Uvalde who testified wept before the committee, including her father, Miguel Cerrillo, who traveled to Washington to testify in person.
鈥淚 come because I could have lost my baby girl, but she鈥檚 not the same baby girl I used to play with,鈥� he said, adding that 鈥渟chools are not safe anymore.鈥�
Kimberly Rubio, and the mother of 10-year-old Lexi Rubio, who died that day, described dropping her children off at the school and attending end-of-school-year awards ceremonies that morning.
鈥淚 left my daughter at that school and that decision will haunt me for the rest of my life,鈥� she said, as she testified in a video recording sitting next to her stone-faced husband, Felix Rubio.
She called for a ban on assault rifles, high-capacity magazines, raising the age to purchase certain guns, keeping guns out of the hands of people deemed to be a risk to themselves or others, stronger background checks and to repeal gun manufacturers鈥� immunity from liability.
鈥淲e understand for some reason to some people, to people with money, to people who fund political campaigns, that guns are more important than children,鈥� Rubio said. 鈥淪o at this moment we ask for progress.鈥�
Dr. Roy Guerrero, a pediatrician, Uvalde native and graduate of Robb Elementary School, described in the hearing room his encounter with the bodies of two deceased children that arrived at his hospital.
The children鈥檚 bodies were 鈥減ulverized,鈥� 鈥渄ecapitated鈥� and 鈥渞ipped apart.鈥� The bullets did so much damage to their bodies that the 鈥渙nly clue as to their identities was a blood-splattered cartoon clothes still clinging to them, clinging for life and finding none.鈥�
He added that he and other hospital personnel braced that day for an onslaught of carnage, but it never came because so many of the victims were already dead.
