UVALDE, Texas -- There was blood within the hallway and kids had been lined in it, one of many college students who survived the mass taking pictures at Robb Elementary Faculty in Uvalde, Texas, informed ABC Information."[The shooter] got here in and mentioned, 'You are all gonna die,' and simply began taking pictures," Samuel Salinas, …
UVALDE, Texas — There was blood within the hallway and kids had been lined in it, one of many college students who survived the mass taking pictures at Robb Elementary Faculty in Uvalde, Texas, informed ABC Information.
“[The shooter] got here in and mentioned, ‘You are all gonna die,’ and simply began taking pictures,” Samuel Salinas, 10, recalled in an interview airing Friday on “Good Morning America.”
Salinas was a scholar in Irma Garcia’s fourth-grade class. They had been scheduled to graduate Thursday, however the ceremony was canceled as a result of Garcia, one other trainer and 19 third- and fourth-grade college students had been killed in Tuesday’s bloodbath. One other 17 individuals had been wounded, together with three legislation enforcement officers.
The gunman, Salvador Ramos, allegedly bought two assault rifles simply days after turning 18 and used them to hold out the second-worst college taking pictures in U.S. historical past, killing 21 individuals, in accordance with authorities.
Among the kids and lecturers who walked into college that day had no thought it will be their final.
Among the individuals who died on Might 24, 2022 at Robb Elementary Faculty in Uvalde, Texas, in a mass taking pictures.
Courtesy the Households
Salinas, whose mom died in a automobile accident in 2019, mentioned his aunt dropped him off for college on Tuesday morning.
“It was a traditional day till my trainer mentioned we’re on extreme lockdown,” he informed ABC Information, “after which there was taking pictures within the home windows.”
Salinas mentioned the gunman got here into his classroom, closed the door and informed them, “You are all going to die,” earlier than opening hearth.
“He shot the trainer after which he shot the children,” Salinas mentioned, recalling the cries and yells of scholars round him.
Crosses with the names of victims of a faculty taking pictures, are pictured at a memorial outdoors Robb Elementary college, after a gunman killed nineteen kids and two lecturers, in Uvalde, U.S. Might 26, 2022.
Marco Bello/Reuters
“I feel he was aiming at me,” Salinas mentioned, however a chair was between him and the shooter, and the bullet hit the chair. Shrapnel struck Salinas’ thigh and received lodged in his leg. Then he pretended to be useless, he mentioned.
“I performed useless so he would not shoot me,” he added, noting that a whole lot of different kids did the identical.
A cellphone in one of many scholar’s desks began ringing, and because the woman was attempting to silence it, Salinas heard gunshots. Police engaged the gunman after which moved desks out of the way in which to free the youngsters, he mentioned.
As police rushed him out of the room, Salinas mentioned he noticed the our bodies of his trainer and different college students.
“There was blood on the bottom,” he recalled. “And there have been children […] stuffed with blood.”
An aerial view of Robb Elementary Faculty, Might 25, 2022, as legislation enforcement works on the scene of a Might 24 mass taking pictures that left 21 individuals useless, together with 19 kids, in Uvalde, Texas.
Jordan Vonderhaar/Getty Photos
Now, Salinas mentioned, he has nightmares of the shooter and of being shot.
When requested the way it felt to hitch the rising checklist of college taking pictures victims, Salinas mentioned the thought of going to fifth grade is solely overwhelming.
“Every time there is a lockdown, then I will be actually scared,” he informed ABC Information, preventing again tears.
Neighborhood members pray collectively at a vigil, Might 25, 2022, for the victims within the mass taking pictures at Rob Elementary Faculty, in Uvalde, Texas.
Brandon Bell/Getty Photos
Even the thought of reuniting along with his pals who survived the taking pictures was an excessive amount of for the 10-year-old to consider.
“I am not trying ahead to it,” he mentioned. “I am simply going to remain residence and relaxation.”
His father, Chris Salinas, sat quietly beside him as he recounted the expertise. It was the primary time he had heard the main points of his son’s encounter and it almost introduced him to tears.
The one message the fourth-grader mentioned he has for his fellow surviving classmates at Robb Elementary Faculty: “I am glad you are alive.”
ABC Information’ Lisa Sivertsen in Los Angeles and Izzy Alvarez in Uvalde contributed to this report.
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