Robb Elementary teacher injured in shooting calls police ‘cowards’ for not helping students sooner

What began as a “typical morning” for Robb Elementary teacher Arnulfo Reyes and his 11 students in Room 111 two weeks in the past ended in terror.

Reyes, a third- and fourth-grade teacher on the Uvalde campus, spoke with ABC News anchor Amy Robach concerning the tragedy from his hospital mattress in San Antonio, the place he’s undergone a number of surgical procedures resulting from gunshot wounds.

His classroom was certainly one of two that was ambushed by an 18-year-old gunman on May 24. The gunman fired greater than 100 rounds in the 2 adjoining school rooms, rooms 111 and 112.

Two academics and 19 fourth-grade students, together with all 11 students in Reyes’ classroom, ended up dying in the shooting.

But earlier than the tragedy, Reyes mentioned the category was spending that Tuesday watching “The Addams Family” and gearing up for an awards ceremony — a relaxed faculty day in the final week of the varsity year.

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Then, gunshots rang out.

“And the kids started asking out loud, ‘Mister, what is going on?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know what’s going on, but let’s go ahead and get under the table. Get under the table and act like you’re asleep,’” he mentioned.

As he was gathering the kids below the desk, he noticed the shooter in the adjoining room.

“I turned around and saw him standing there,” he mentioned. Almost instantly, the gunman opened hearth, placing Reyes with two of these bullets.

One went by way of his arm and lung, and the opposite went by way of his again. He collapsed, and will now not transfer.

Reyes mentioned students may hear police outdoors the classroom, and certainly one of them known as for assist.

“One of the students from the next-door classroom was saying, ‘Officer, we’re in here, we’re in here,’” Reyes mentioned.

“But they had already left.”

The gunmen walked to that classroom and opened hearth once more, Reyes mentioned.

A timeline from Steve McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, says that seven officers entered the varsity by 11:35 a.m., simply minutes after the gunman entered the constructing. They took on gunfire and retreated.

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At 12:03 p.m., a woman known as 911 and whispered that she was in room 112. She known as once more at 12:10 p.m. and mentioned there have been a number of useless. She known as once more at 12:13 p.m. after which once more at 12:16 p.m., when she mentioned there are eight to 9 students alive.

DPS mentioned one other woman in room 111 known as 911 at 12:19 p.m. however ended the decision when a fellow scholar advised her to hold up. More 911 calls have been made, with one woman pleading twice to “please send the police now.”

“I prayed and prayed that I would not hear any of my students talk,” Reyes mentioned, believing that he was going to die.

At 12:50 p.m., officers opened the door with keys from a faculty worker and entered the room, killing the gunman, based on McCraw.

Reyes mentioned there have been “bullets everywhere. And then I just remember Border Patrol saying, ‘Get up, get out,’ and I couldn’t get up.”

He known as the police “cowards” for not appearing sooner and regrets that he couldn’t do extra to save lots of the lives of his students and colleagues.

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“After everything, I get more angry, because you have a bulletproof vest. I had nothing,” he mentioned. “You’re supposed to protect and serve. There’s no excuse for their actions and I will never forgive them.”

Since the shooting, Gov. Greg Abbott has known as for extra coaching, however Reyes mentioned the whole lot occurred too quick for the academics and students in these two rooms.

“I tried my best with what I was told to do,” he mentioned, including that faculties prepare students to cover below tables and desks. “We set them up to be as ducks.”

“You can give us all the training you want, but gun laws have to change.”

He mentioned he would “go to the end of the world” to see change.

On Wednesday, mother and father of victims and survivors of the Uvalde mass shooting will seem earlier than a House committee to deliver consciousness to America’s gun violence epidemic.

One of the Uvalde students, Miah Cerrillo, a fourth-grader who coated herself in her useless classmate’s blood and performed useless to outlive, will testify.

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