A teacher at Rob Elementary School in Uwalde, Texas, was injured after authorities initially said the gunman entered the building through a door she left open, her lawyer said.
“She can’t stop shaking,” said Don Flanari, a lawyer for teacher Emilia Marin.
The teacher was helping a colleague bring food for a party when 18-year-old shooter Salvador Ramos arrived at the school in Uwalde, CNN reported.
Authorities initially said Ramos entered the school through a door left open by Marin, but since then the Texas Department of Public Safety has clarified that the gunman entered through an unlocked door.
“She felt alone, as if she couldn’t even grieve,” Flanari told CNN about the authorities’ incorrect initial account. She guessed, “Didn’t I do that?”
Marin has trouble dealing with the insinuation that her actions contributed to the massacre, Flanari told ABC News.
“It’s traumatic for her when she’s implied she’s involved, the door is open,” Marin’s lawyer said. “She has a broken heart.”
Marin took immediate action to stop Ramos’ attack, Flanari insisted.
“She sees him throwing a bag over the fence and he holds the weapon, the gun around his chest,” Flanari recalls. “He jumps over the fence and starts running towards it.”
Authorities initially said Texas shooter Salvador Ramos entered the school through a door that teacher Emilia Marin had left open. AP The Texas Public Safety Department later clarified that shooter Salvador Ramos entered through an unlocked door. AP
Marin then kicked the stone that kept the door open and slammed the door, Flanari said.
“She thought she was going to die on her own,” the lawyer continued. “She was waiting for him to come in. He is obviously heartbroken by all the lives lost.
Marin rushed inside to report the crash, leaving the door open with a stone, Flanari said. Then she returned while still on the line with the cops, and saw a colleague fleeing to safety and others across the street at a funeral home as she shouted, “He has a gun!”
The last of the shootings at a school in Texas
The attacker has never met Marin or her grandson, who attends school. But the horrific attack caused the educator to suffer and she had to seek help from a neurologist, Flanari said.
The Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed that investigators found that the teacher had closed the door, but it failed to lock, ABC News reported.
Marin’s lawyer told CNN that the moments that followed would be “the worst thing anyone could endure.”
Ramos started firing outside the school before entering. While “frozen” in fear, Marin received a text message from her daughter asking if she was safe – but she turned off her phone, believing that Ramos could hear the device, CNN reported.
“She thought he would come in and kill her and come to terms with it,” Flanari continued.
Ramos eventually headed to another classroom full of students, killing 19, along with two teachers, in the deadliest shooting at a school in nearly a decade.
Flanari is assisting Marin in a possible civil lawsuit against Daniel Defense, the maker of the firearms used in the attack, CNN reported.
The petition does not accuse the manufacturer of illegal actions, but aims to investigate whether Marin has legal grounds to file a lawsuit against Daniel Defense, which did not respond to a request from CNN, the network said.
Marin has no plans to sue the school, police or school district, according to the report.
Her traumatic experience reflects that of other Uwalde survivors, such as a third-grader who hid in the school and prayed “not to die” until an hour passed before the cops killed Ramos.
The lawyer of the primary school teacher Rob Emilia Marin Don Flanari says that she is traumatized by the statement of the authorities. Emilia Marin’s lawyer, Don Flanari, said he immediately kicked the stone out the door when he saw Salvador Ramos coming. Elsa G Ruiz / Facebook An hour passed before the police killed the shooter Salvador Ramos. social media / AFP via Getty Image
Leon Hernandez, 9, told The Post on Thursday that he had fallen under a desk with a classmate while Ramos marched into the classroom and around the building.
“She prayed and was afraid,” Leon said of his classmate. “I said we have to pray so we don’t die.”
Leon spoke to The Post on Thursday outside the Uwalde vigil. The funerals, visits and funerals of the 21 victims began on Monday and are expected to continue until mid-June.
With postal wires
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