An 11-year-old girl who smeared blood on herself in order to play dead amid the deadly shooting in Texas last week, couldn't comprehend why police stayed outside while the gunman's massacre went on inside the classroom.
CNN's Nora Neus, who spoke to 11-year-old Miah Cerrillo, says the youngster told her that she couldn't understand why law enforcement officials waited so long to come inside the classroom to rescue them from the rampage.
"Why didn't they come in? Why didn't they save us? The police were outside?" Miah wanted to know, according to Neus.
Check out what Neus had to say below:AP News previously reported that police waited more than an hour to breach the classroom in which fourth graders were trapped with the shooter.
The young students repeatedly called 911, including one child who pleaded: "Please send the police now."
A Texas official said at a news conference on Friday that the Uvalde police made the "wrong decision" by waiting so long to breach the classroom, where the attacker ultimately shot and killed 19 children and two teachers.
"From the benefit of hindsight, where I’m sitting now, of course it was not the right decision," Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said, per NPR. "It was the wrong decision, period."
"[The onsite commander] was convinced at that time that there was no more threat to the children and that the subject was barricaded and that they had time to organize with the proper equipment to go in," McCraw added.
In any case, CNN reporter Neus explained how Miah told her that she managed to survive the shooting by smearing her friend's blood on her own body in order to play dead.
Miah told Neus that she initially thought the police hadn't arrived at the school yet as she waited for an hour for them to take out the attacker.
It was only after the massacre that Miah heard adults speaking about how the officers had been waiting outside the school while the shooter's killing spree went on inside.
Last Tuesday's massacre in the mostly Latino town of Uvalde was the deadliest shooting at a school in the US since 20 children and six adults were shot dead at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012.
The 18-year-old gunman, Salvador Ramos, entered Robb Elementary School at around 11:32 AM. He was armed with a handgun and an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle before "horrifically, incomprehensibly" opening fire, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said.
The teen also shot his grandmother and crashed his car near the school prior to entering the building. He was eventually shot dead by law enforcement officers. Nineteen children and two adults were killed in the attack.
