Samuel Salinas, a fourth-grade student at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, was inside the classroom where teen killer Salvador Ramos reigned terror on Tuesday, killing 19 students and two teachers before authorities shot him dead.
“[The shooter] came in and said, ‘You’re all gonna die,’ and just started shooting,” Samuel said, according to ABC News. “He shot the teacher and then he shot the kids.”
Teachers Eva Mireles and Irma Garcia lost their lives inside the classroom while trying to protect the children. Samuel said the shooter aimed directly at him but ended up shooting a chair instead. Samuel said he “played dead” so that Ramos wouldn’t shoot him again.
“There was blood on the ground,” Samuel said. “There were kids full of blood.”
As CrimeOnline previously reported, officers from multiple agencies responded to the school, among them both on- and off-duty Border Patrol agents. It was one of those agents, the Associated Press reported, who rushed into the school, found the shooter barricaded in a classroom, and fatally shot him. The agent was wounded in the gunfire and has since been released from the hospital.
Meanwhile, a teacher who spoke with NBC said she sat in the middle of her room, trying to comfort and calm her students, who had been watching a Disney movie just moments before.
“They’ve been practicing for this day for years,” she said, referring to the active shooter exercises that have become a glaring part of public school education. “They knew this wasn’t a drill. We knew we had to be quiet or else we were going to give ourselves away.”
In the end, she said, police broke out the windows of her classroom, and she helped each student into the waiting arms of an officer, then looked around again to make sure no one had been missed. Some parents texted her, she said: “Thank you for keeping my baby safe.”
“But it’s not just their baby,” the teacher said through tears. “That’s my baby, too. They are not my students. They are my children.”
According to People, all fatalities at the school happened inside Samuel’s classroom. Watch the interview below.
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[Feature Photo: Irma Garcia & Eva Mireles/Handout]
*Additional reporting by KC Wildmoon*
