11-year-old girl faked her death to survive Texas massacre

An 11-year-old girl smeared herself with a friend's blood to fake her death and survive the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde (Texas), where Salvador Ramos shot and killed 19 children and two teachers, local media reported on Thursday.

Blanca Rivera, the aunt of Miah Cerrillo, the fourth-grader who survived Ramos' attack, told a media outlet that the girl "saw her friend full of blood and then put it on" to pose as another dead body. 

At the time of the attack, Miah dropped to the ground and witnessed her friends and her teacher, Irma Garcia, being killed during the carnage, Rivera said.

The minor was taken to a health center because "she had bullet fragments in her back." However, she was released from the hospital hours later and is now recovering from the trauma caused by the event.

Miah's father, Miguel Cerrillo, said that a police officer retrieved his daughter from the school alive but covered in blood, reported by The Washington Post.

In light of the police action, new details are beginning to emerge that have put the spotlight on their response. Several people who witnessed the incident reported that witnesses urged police to enter the school, and one even considered doing so on his own, frustrated by the officers' lack of action, reported the BBC.

Initial reports from the Department of Public Safety stated that an armed officer working at the school had confronted Ramos when he arrived at the school.

Victor Escalon, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said at a news conference Thursday that that information is incorrect. "There was no officer available and armed."

Witnesses told The Wall Street Journal (WJS) that "the police were not doing anything." Angeli Rose Gomez, a farm supervisor, and one of the mothers outside the school, testified that she had been handcuffed for, according to police, "intervening in an ongoing investigation."