CNN
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Shots rang out from the Robb Elementary School shooter as injured fourth-grader Miah Cerrillo was on the phone with a 911 operator.
“He’s shooting,” she says simply at 12:21 p.m.
“Keep quiet, everyone please,” she was told by the operator.
It takes another 29 minutes before the officer challenges the shooter and kills him.
By then, armed responders had piled up outside connected classrooms 111 and 112, waiting and talking until the team finally entered the room and killed the gunman, checking equipment and searching for tools.
From the Uvalde, Texas massacre that claimed the lives of 19 children and two teachers, Mia and her classmate, Chloe Torres, both of whom survived, were told by the police that they were on the phone. I asked him to send an officer to help me.
They were unaware that a total of 376 officers from 23 local, state, and federal agencies were on hand. At least one of his children and one of his teachers survived the initial attack but later died.
And now, Mia’s parents, Abigail Bellos and Miguel Serillo, want every cop to hear the call from their daughter, who was injured by flying debris in her shoulder and head.
“When kids call and say they’re hurt or they’re in the classroom, it shows they’re really cowards,” Cerrillo said of the responding officer.
“Every cop who was there needs to hear this audio so they can understand what the kids are going through. These suckers are right outside.”
The chaotic and lengthy May 24th response has been denounced for months as a failure. But full details of what happened and when it happened are still being withheld, and Texas’ top police officers didn’t provide the expected update at a public meeting last week. After listening to the family’s outrage and admitting some mistakes, the head of the state’s Department of Public Safety, Colonel Steve McCullough, said his officers “did not let the community down” in Uvalde.
Mia’s parents reached out to CNN after Mia’s classmate Chloe called 912 Tuesday and provided details of the fatalities and injuries in Class 112. Forty minutes before her, a police officer finally burst into the room, stopped the shooter, and rescued the victim.
Chloe’s father, Reuben Torres, praised his daughter’s actions and contrasted them with police inaction after hearing the 911 call. “What she did that day was incredible,” he said of his daughter. Of the adults who responded, he said, “Nobody had the courage that day.”
Published excerpt of a 10-year-old describing Uvalde’s slaughter to a dispatcher
CNN has obtained 18 minutes of 911 audio from the source and used it with the approval of Chloe and Mia’s parents. It was this call that put an end to the doubts and hesitation that a teenage gunfighter roamed between his two connected classrooms, children trapped, wounded, and in need of rescue.
Wednesday was the first time Mia’s parents heard the call, but they said it helped them understand what Mia talked about that day and what she went through.
They could hear her trying to help Eva Mireles, a teacher who was shot and later died, while giving her room number to Uvalde and Chloe, who is fairly new to the school. And when Chloe tells the operator’s instructions to everyone to keep quiet, Mia panics and tries to silence her injured fourth-grader buddy.
They then hear her answer the phone and take over from Chloe, making the same clear and polite request.
“Hi, can you send me some help?” Mia said at 12:19 p.m., 46 minutes after the shooter was seen entering the room, and still over 30 minutes after he was stopped. Asked.
“Are they in the building?” she repeatedly asks about law enforcement response. According to her mother, Miah believed the police were still trying to find ways to approach them.
Her family tried to protect her from learning more about her failed response, but last month she posted body camera videos online showing her distractions, delays and lack of communication. I found.
“She was so angry. ‘She couldn’t believe they were right there.’
A few days later, Mia was able to tell CNN that she smeared herself with blood and pretended to be dead, hoping the shooter would leave her alone when he returned from the classroom next door. . She testified before the U.S. Congress and sent a video message to the House Committee on Gun Violence Investigation, in which she said all she wanted was “to be safe.”
Recently, Mia has found it difficult to open up to strangers, her mother said.
Her parents said they had “a mental picture” of what she was talking about when they heard her call 911.
“I can see why she doesn’t want to go anywhere,” says Veloz.
They still discover bullet fragments embedded in her back, and the emotional toll is almost visible.
“She’s not Mia anymore,” the mother said simply, remembering that the middle child loved to play pranks with her siblings and was now afraid of loud noises.
This week is Mia’s birthday. She turns 12 on Friday. And her birthday wish, according to her mother, is to keep quiet and get out of Yuvalde that day.
