Crime
Uvalde teacher whose 11 students were killed in shooting speaks out about the attack
"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"
June 7, 2022 12:01pm
Updated: June 7, 2022 1:40pm
A Uvalde teacher who was in a classroom where 11 students were killed by a gunman who entered the Texas school last month has told the world the horrors he lived through that day.
Eleven of Arnulfo Reyes’ students were among the 19 children and two teachers that 18-year-old Salvador Ramos killed when he opened fire inside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, last May 24.
That day, Reyes was teaching his fourth-grade class in room 11. To celebrate the end of the school year, his class was watching a movie when they heard gunshots.
"The kids started asking out loud, 'Mr. Reyes, what is going on?'" Reyes told ABC's Amy Robach in an interview on "World News Tonight with David Muir."
"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.'”
"As they were doing that, and I was gathering them under the table and told them to act like they're going to sleep, is about the time when I turned around and saw him standing there."
It was then that Ramos opened fire. First, he shot at Reyes. He hit his arm, lung, and back, leaving him unable to move. Then, he opened fire on the students.
Reyes said police could be heard outside of the classroom, but no one came to check on them. He also heard the police talk to Ramos through a door and told him they wanted him to come out.
"One of the students from the next-door classroom was saying, 'Officer, we're in here. We're in here,'" he said. "But they had already left."
Reyes had to play dead for 77 minutes until Border Patrol killed Ramos in another classroom.
Police have been criticized for the amount of time they took to confront the gunman in the classroom. Around 40 minutes to an hour passed between the time the shooter arrived at the school to when he was shot and killed.
“I feel so bad for the parents because they lost a child," Reyes told Robach. "But they lost one child. I lost 11 that day, all at one time."
