A teacher shot dead by a mad shooter who killed 19 students and two teachers at a Texas elementary school said he played dead for more than an hour to survive the massacre.
Arnulfo Reyes spoke about the ordeal in an interview with ABC News and offered one of the more detailed accounts of the horror at Rob’s primary school on May 24, which ended with the deaths of 11 of his students.
Reyes told the network that his class was watching a movie when 18-year-old shooter Salvador Ramos broke into their room.
“The children started asking out loud, ‘Mr. “Reyes, what’s going on,” and I said, “I don’t know what’s going on, but let’s go on and get under the table … get under the table and act like you’re sleeping,” Reyes said in an interview.
As Reyes and the children huddled under the table, the 17-year veteran teacher said he turned and saw Ramos open fire in the classroom.
A bullet hit Reyes’ arm and lung. The second bullet hit him in the back.
Reyes survived the shooting, but was hit in the arm and lung by a bullet and in the back by a second bullet. Uvalde CISD
“One of the students in the next classroom was saying, ‘Officer, we’re here. “We’re here, but they’ve already left,” Reyes said.
Reyes said he played dead for an hour and 17 minutes, but heard Ramos walk from his classroom to the next classroom to continue his rampage.
Law enforcement officers returned for the second time and finally broke down the door of Ramos’ classroom before fatally shooting the shooter.
By then, Reyes’ 11 students were dead.
Eleven Reyes students were killed in the attack, along with eight others at the school and two teachers. (Kevin S. Downs for New York
Reyes is currently recovering at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.
The responsible law enforcement agencies in Uwalde are facing serious control due to their delayed response in removing the shooter.
School District Police Chief Pete Aredondo did not wear a radio that day and also treats the incident as a suspicious barricade situation, not an active shooter’s situation.
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