11-Year-Old Smeared Blood On Herself, Played Dead To Survive Texas Shooting, Says Family

An 11-year-old girl smeared blood on herself and played dead during the tragic massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, her family said.

The fourth-grader, Miah Cerrillo, is left struggling to recover from the trauma of witnessing her friends and teacher being mercilessly gunned down inside her school Tuesday.

Blanca Rivera, the child's aunt, said Miah went into survival mode when the teenage gunman opened fire, NBC DFW reported.

"Miah got some blood and put it on herself so she could pretend she was dead," said Rivera, according to the outlet. "It's too much for me to play that scene over and over again, but that's what my sister-in-law said is that she saw her friend full of blood and she got blood and put it on herself."

Miah’s father, Miguel Cerrillo, spoke with the Washington Post and said he rushed to the school when he heard about the shooting, according to the New York Post. As Cerrillo arrived at the scene, he saw cops walking out of the building carrying his daughter, who was covered in blood.

The father wasn’t allowed to join his daughter on the bus but was able to talk to her through a window about what happened.

The father said Miah recounted seeing her teacher Eva Mireles get shot as she was holding her phone. Miah also told her father that she used the dead teacher’s phone to call 911.

Cerrillo said the gunman then shot her friend, after which Miah decided to play dead by lying on top of the wounded and bleeding classmate. The friend eventually succumbed to her injuries, according to Cerrillo’s account.

Miah was injured and taken to the hospital following the shooting, her aunt said. She was later released from the hospital.

“My brother said she had bullet fragments in her back,” Rivera told KPRC 2.

Miah, who is one of five siblings in her family, has a younger sister studying in the second grade at Robb Elementary School. The second-grader was unharmed during the shooting.

The aunt said the young girl seemed to be doing alright until she returned home from the hospital Tuesday night.

“Around midnight, my sister-in-law called me and she was just crying like, ‘I think it just hit Miah. I think everything came to reality. We’re home, and she’s just crying and having a panic attack,’” Rivera added.

The gunman, identified as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, killed 19 children and two teachers inside the school before responding officers fatally shot him at the scene.

Rivera said the family is now rallying around Miah to help with her physical and mental recovery.

“At this point, we just have to pray and ask God to help us move forward through this situation. I know it’s traumatizing and having an 11-year-old go through this, I can’t imagine what she’s feeling,” Rivera went on to say.