11-Year-Old Uvalde Survivor Smeared Herself With Blood, Played Dead

An 11-year-old student who witnessed the devastating attack at Robb Elementary was forced to play dead and smear blood all over herself to survive. After seeing her friend murdered right in front of her, Miah Cerrillo went into what her aunt called “survivor mode.” Her quick thinking is the only reason she’s alive today.

The Robb Elementary fourth-grader told her father that she witnessed her teachers Eva Mireles and Irma Garcia being shot as Miereles attempted to dial 911. Per CNN, the gunman looked at one of the teachers in the eye, said, “Goodnight,” and fired. He proceeded to open fire at the rest of her classmates. After the shooting was over, the gunman continued on his rampage to an adjacent classroom. It was then that Miah grabbed the the slain teacher’s phone and called 911.

Fearing that the shooter would return for the surviving students, she smeared her dead friend’s blood and played dead herself. The 11-year-old recalled it feeling “like three hours that she lay there,” waiting with her friends for police, according to the outlet.

“My sister-in-law said that [Miah] saw her friend full of blood, and she got blood and put it on herself,” said Blanca Rivera, Miah’s aunt, to local station KPRC.

Rivera also explained that, although Miah had survived the attack, she has been left traumatized and even had a panic attack in the middle of the night this past Tuesday. The fourth-grader was also among the injured, with bullet fragments lodged in her back.

As more information has come to light about the Robb Elementary School massacre, parents and police officers spent nearly an hour outside while Salvador Ramos was left inside, murdering 19 students and two teachers on Tuesday. Parents were reportedly begging officers to go inside the building but refused as they waited for backup. Some parents were even tackled by authorities to prevent their entry to save their children.

According to the Washington Post, Miguel Cerrillo, Miah’s father, said “that when he learned of the active shooter situation, he raced to Robb Elementary School and got there just in time to see a police officer carrying his bloodied daughter out of the building.”

Rivera said she can’t possibly imagine what her niece is feeling after what she went through. “At this point, we just have to pray and ask God to help us move forward through this situation.”

After being released from the hospital that night, “Miah spent the night in a state of panic, telling her dad to arm himself because ‘[the gunman is] going to come get us,'” say her father and aunt.

The family have set up a GoFundMe to help cover therapy expenses for Miah.