Eleven students who were in Arnulfo Reyes’ class at the time will be among 19 children and two teachers killed by a gunman who broke into two adjoining classrooms at Rob Elementary School in Uwalde, Texas, on May 24. said the teacher.
“The kids started asking out loud, ‘Mr Reyes, what’s going on?'” Reyes told ABC’s Amy Robach in an interview Monday with World News Tonight with David Muer.
“And I said, ‘I don’t know what’s going on, but let’s move on and get under the table. Lie down under the table and act as if you are sleeping.
“Since they were doing this, and I was gathering them under the table and telling them to act as if they were going to sleep, it’s about the time I turned around and saw him standing there.”
The assailant opened fire, hitting Reyes; one bullet went through his arm and lung and another struck him in the back, ABC reported.
Reyes could not move after being shot, he said, and then the shooter aimed his gun at the students.
Officers were heard outside the classroom, and a child in another classroom asked police to help, Reyes said. But Reyes believes the officers withdrew down the corridor at the time, he told ABC.
“One of the students in the next classroom was saying, ‘Officer, here we are. We are here, “he said. “But they were already gone.”
Salvador Ramos, an 18-year-old gunman, shot dead students and teachers in Reyes’ classroom, Room 111, and next door, authorities said. He was in the classroom for more than an hour before being shot and killed by a tactical Border Patrol response team, according to a chronology provided by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Officers responded within minutes of the suspect’s entry into the classroom, but were repelled by gunfire and then stationed in the hallway waiting for reinforcements, even as children inside called 911 and prayed for help. from the police, shows the timeline.
Reyes played dead for 77 minutes until the Border Patrol team removed Ramos, he told ABC.
CNN’s Travis Caldwell contributed to this report.
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