Uvalde Survivor Miah Cerillo Recounts Covering Herself In Friend’s Blood At House Hearing

Miah Cerillo, an 11-year-old survivor of last month’s Uvalde, Texas, Robb Elementary School shooting testified through a video message to Congress on Wednesday.

Cerillo recounted how her class had been watching a movie when her teacher received an email alert warning of an active shooter on school grounds. Her teacher told the class to hide. When her teacher went to lock the door, she made eye contact with the shooter who shot her in the head and said, “Goodnight.” Cerillo recounted how her classmates were shot. When the shooter left to go into the adjoining classroom, Cerillo said she found her teacher’s phone, called 911 and told them to come to her classroom, then covered herself in her friend’s blood and played dead in fear the shooter would come back to her classroom.

She said that she no longer feels safe going back to school and that she wants higher security so the same thing can’t happen again.

Survivors and families of victims of May’s Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde shootings were invited to speak at the hearing.

“My goal for today’s hearing is simple,” said committee chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-New York). “I am asking every Member of this Committee to listen with an open heart to the brave witnesses who have come forward to tell their stories about how gun violence has impacted their lives. Let us hear their voices. Let us honor their courage. And let us find the same courage to pass commonsense laws to protect our children.”

Following the hearings, the House passed the Protect Our Kids Act, which is comprised of eight measures including increasing the minimum age to purchase semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21, banning high-capacity magazines and strengthening bump stock and ghost gun regulations. The bill will almost certainly be blocked in the evenly divided Senate where 10 Republicans would need to support it to avoid the filibuster. A group of bipartisan Senate members are working on finding common ground.