Miah Cerrillo, 11, survived the Uvalde massacre by covering herself in the blood of a classmate and pretending to be dead as she heard gunshots and screams, the girl told a CNN reporter.
The testimony was obtained in an off-camera interview.
Miah, who according to the channel is so traumatized that she cannot talk to men, recounted the horrendous attack carried out on Tuesday by Salvador Ramos, 18, who murdered 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, a majority Latino community in Texas.
Miah’s class was watching TV in a room with two teachers when they got a message that someone was shooting inside the school, the girl said, according to CNN.
One of the teachers went to the door and ran into Ramos who followed her into the classroom, said “Good night” and shot her. She then opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle on the other teacher and the children.
Miah claims to have seen bullets flying around. CNN reported that bullet fragments hit her shoulders and her head.
Ramos went to the next classroom, and right away she heard more gunshots and screams. The bullets stopped, and she began to hear “sad music.”
She claims to have reached for a teacher’s phone with a friend to call the emergency service for help. “We’re in trouble,” she said.
Afraid that Ramos would come back and kill her, she covered herself in the blood of a classmate who died next to her and pretended to be dead for what felt like three hours to her.
According to CNN, Miah said she couldn’t sleep and was losing her hair after the attack.
His mother, Abigale Veloz, opened a GoFundMe online fundraiser to pay for psychological and medical treatment.
“She is a survivor of the Uvalde school shooting. His classroom was under attack“, Veloz wrote on the page where there is a photo of Miah.
“She will need a lot of help with the trauma that she is going through. My daughter is an amazing person and she is a good sister. She will need help with her medical bills caused by a bullet fragment in her back.”
As of Friday afternoon, donations exceeded $270,000, with an initial goal of $10,000.