11-Year-Old Uvalde Student Played Dead By Covering Herself In Friend’s Blood To Survive Shooting

Miah Cerrillo, an 11-year-old survivor of the Robb Elementary School shooting that took 21 lives a week ago, said that she covered herself in her friend’s blood and played dead in fear the gunman would come back and kill her.

She spoke off-camera to CNN’s Nora Neus since she was too scared to speak on camera or to a man. She said she still wants to let people know what happened in hopes her story can help prevent a similar situation.

11-year-old Miah Cerrillo told me that to survive the shooting at Robb Elementary, she smeared her friend's blood all over her body and played dead.

She had to lay there, with her teachers and friends dead next to her, for almost an hour.

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— Nora Neus (@noraneus) May 27, 2022

Cerrillo said the class was watching Lilo and Stitch when her teachers got the warning that there was an active shooter on the premises. Her teacher went to lock the door, but the shooter, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, was already there. As the teacher backed up, Ramos said, “Good night,” and shot her. He then emptied his weapon into the classroom. He then went into the adjoining classroom where Cerrillo heard more shots. She reported hearing him play loud, sad music. Ramos took the lives of the other teacher and 19 children in total.

While Ramos was in the other room, Cerrillo and another surviving friend found their dead teacher’s phone and called 911 for help.

“Please come … we’re in trouble,” she reported telling the dispatcher.

Cerrillo then dipped her hands in her classmate’s blood and lay on the ground next to her classmates to appear dead in case Ramos came back.

The little girl suffered from bullet fragments in her back but was treated in a local hospital and released shortly after.

Cerrillo’s parents report that she is too scared to sleep and that certain noises, such as a phone alarm and a vacuum cleaner at the car wash, set her off. They set up a GoFundMe to raise money for their daughter to go to therapy after the traumatic event.