Currents News Staff
From a hospital in San Antonio, a teacher who survived the Uvalde shooting offered the most vivid account yet of what happened inside his classroom.
“The kids started asking out loud, ‘Mr. Reyes what is going on?’ And I said ‘I don’t know what’s going on,” said Robb Elementary School Teacher Arnulfo Reyes. “But let’s go ahead and get under the table. Get under the table and act like you’re asleep.'”
In an interview with ABC, Arnulfo recalled the moments he and his students in Classroom 111 heard gunshots while they were watching a movie. As he told them to take cover, Arnulfo said the gunman entered the classroom and opened fire. One bullet went through his arm and lung – and another hit his back, according to ABC.
“One of the students from the next-door classroom was saying, ‘Officer, we’re in here. We’re in here.’ But they had already left,” said Arnulfo. “He then got up from behind my desk and he walked over there, and he shot over there again.”
Officers had responded within minutes of the suspect entering the school, but were repelled by the gunman’s fire – and then stationed in a hallway waiting for reinforcements – even as children inside 911 and begged for help.
“I get more angry because you have a bulletproof vest,” said Arnulfo. “I had nothing.”
Meanwhile in Washington, an impassioned plea from actor and Uvalde native Matthew McConaughey urging lawmakers to act.
“We start by giving all of them our promise that their dreams are not going to be forgotten,” said Matthew McConaughey.