(Family photo of Miah Cerrillo)
Eleven-year-old Miah Cerrillo, who survived the massacre in the fourth-grade classroom at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, said she smeared blood on her friend for appearing dead in in case the shooter returns.
He spoke exclusively on CNN about his horrible experience that day, but refused to talk to any men because of what happened and only feels comfortable talking to women. I also didn’t want to go out in front of the camera.
Miah and her classmates were watching “Lilo & Stitch” when their teachers Eva Mireles and Irma Garcia received an email notifying them of a shooting at the school. CNN spoke to both Miah and her mother.
One teacher “went to the door and was right there; they made eye contact,” Neus told CNN’s John Berman. “Mia says it all happened so fast. She supported the teacher in the classroom. She made eye contact with the teacher again, looked her straight in the eye and said ‘good night’ and then shot and killed her. “
At that moment, he opened fire on the classroom, which hit the other teacher and many of Miah’s friends.
Miah was also hit by bullet fragments. They can be seen on the back, shoulders and back of the head, Neus said.
Then the shooter entered the adjoining classroom and Miah told CNN she could hear screams, many more shots, and then said she heard music.
“She thinks it was the gunman who put her on. She started making sad music,” Neus said. “She just said it sounded like ‘I want people to die’ music.”
Miah said she was afraid the gunman would return to kill her and some other surviving friends. So she put her hands in the blood of her friend, who lay down beside her — and she looked dead — and then smeared everything on herself to look dead.
She and a friend also managed to pick up her dead teacher’s phone and call 911 for help. She says she told a dispatcher, “Please send help because we’re in trouble.”
Miah says she thought she was there for three hours, but her mother then said, “Honey, I think it was closer to an hour, but I’m sure I thought so.”
While lying there, Miah thought police had not arrived on campus, she told CNN.
He says he later heard about the police waiting outside the school. Explaining this during the interview, he started crying, saying he didn’t understand why they didn’t come in and grabbed them.
Now, Miah is experiencing trauma and her parents have started GoFundMe specifically to pay for her therapy.
LOOK: An 11-year-old girl says she used her friend’s blood to kill herself in the classroom