WASHINGTON –
An 11-year-old girl who survived the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, explained in a video testimony in Congress on Wednesday how she covered herself with the blood of a dead classmate to avoid being shot and “He stood still.”
Miah Cerrillo, a fourth-grader at Robb Elementary School, told lawmakers in a pre-recorded video that she saw a teacher shoot herself in the head before looking for a place to hide.
“I thought I’d be back, so I covered myself in blood,” Miah told the House panel. “I put it all on myself and stood still.” He called 911 using the dead teacher’s phone and called for help.
Nineteen children and two teachers were killed when an 18-year-old gunman opened fire with an AR-15-style rifle inside Robb Elementary School on May 24.
This is the second day that lawmakers have heard a devastating testimony about the nation’s epidemic of armed violence. On Tuesday, a Senate court heard the son of an 86-year-old woman murdered when a gunman opened fire on a racist attack on black shoppers in Buffalo, New York, on May 14th. Ten black people died.
In Wednesday’s video, Miah’s father, Miguel Cerillo, asks his daughter if she already feels safe at school. She shook her head.
“Because?” he asks. “I don’t want it to happen again,” he replies.
The testimony in the House Oversight Committee comes as lawmakers are working to reach a bipartisan agreement on gun security measures following consecutive mass shootings.
Deputy Carolyn Maloney, DN.Y., chair of the panel, convened the hearing to focus on the human impact of armed violence and the urgency of gun control legislation.
“I urge all members of this Committee to listen with open heart to the courageous witnesses who have come forward to tell their stories about how armed violence has affected their lives,” Maloney said in his initial statements. “Our witnesses today have suffered pain and loss. However, they are showing incredible courage in coming here to ask us to do our job. “
But while some lawmakers cried alongside the panelists, the hearing showed the controversial arms control debate that Congress has repeatedly faced around mass shootings. Several Republicans on the panel addressed the conversation to gun abusers and how “hardening schools” could help protect them.
Deputy Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., Who owns a gun shop, said one of the things he learned during his military service was that “the harder the target, the less likely it is to be compromised by the enemy. ” He called on schools to keep their doors closed, provide a single point of entry and “a volunteer force of well-trained and armed staff, as well as a school resources officer.”
The parents of the victims and survivors begged lawmakers not to allow their children’s death and grief to be in vain. After Miah spoke, her father told lawmakers he testified that “I could have lost my baby girl.”
“But she’s not the same girl I play with,” Cerrillo said. “Schools are no longer safe. Something really needs to change. “
Zeneta Everhart, whose 20-year-old son Zaire was injured in the Buffalo massacre, also testified.
Everhart told lawmakers it was his duty to draft legislation that would protect Zaire and other Americans. She said that if they did not find the witness touching enough to act on the gun laws, they had an invitation to go to her house to help her clean up her son’s wounds.
“My son Zaire has a hole in the right side of his neck, two in his back and another in his left leg,” he said, and then stopped to calm down. “As I clean his wounds, I can feel pieces of this bullet in his back. The shrapnel will be left inside his body for the rest of his life. Now I want you to imagine this exact scenario for one of your children.” .
The parents of Lexi Rubio, who died in her classroom in Uvalde, also testified. Felix and Kimberly Rubio explained that they had learned of her daughter’s death hours after leaving the Lexi School Awards Ceremony on the morning of the shooting.
To get to elementary school, Kimberly Rubio said she ran barefoot for a mile with sandals in hand and her husband by her side. Eventually, a firefighter took them back to the civic center.
“Shortly afterwards we received the news that our daughter was among the 19 students and two teachers who died as a result of the armed violence,” she said, struggling through tears.
The hearing comes as the Democratic-led House is expected to pass legislation that will raise the age limit for buying a semi-automatic rifle and ban the sale of ammunition carbines with a capacity of more than 10 cartridges.
Legislation has little chance of becoming law, as the Senate continues negotiations focused on improving mental health programs, strengthening school safety, and improving background checks. But it does allow Democratic lawmakers the opportunity to frame voters in November where they remain in policies that polls show appeal to a majority of voters.
Most American adults think that mass shootings would occur less often if guns were harder to get, and that schools and other public places have become less secure than they were two decades ago.