camera. she did agree to speak with my partner cnn producer nora. you were in with mia and her mother, i want to make clear her mother was there the whole time. what did she tell you? the 11-year-old mia was in that fourth grade classroom that we have heard so much about with ms. garcia and ms. morales. they were watching lilo and stitch, it was the end of the school year, and she said one of her teachers got the email that there was a shooter in the building and went to the door and he was right there. they made eye contact. the shooter made eye contact with the teacher. with the teacher and he shot out the window in the door. and then mia says it just happened all so fast, he backed the teacher into the classroom and he made eye contact with the teacher, again, looked her right in the eye and said goodnight and then shot her and killed her. he said goodnight before he shot her. he said goodnight. then it happened pretty fast after that as well. he started open fir
still chief among the questions out there and why is the police department now backtracking on some of their basic findings? officials are going to be holding a briefing in texas in the next hour. let s begin though at this hour with cnn s rosa flores live in uvalde. rosa, what are you hearing from some of these children who managed to survive? reporter: well, kate, we are hearing about those intense moments when the shooter was inside the classroom, those intense moments when children were trying to do everything they could to survive. they describe the gunfire at first. they thought it was fireworks. you mentioned a little girl who covered herself in blood and played dead to try to survive, to make sure that she could do what she could do at that point in time to survive this terrible tragedy. but here they are, children describing what they lived through in their own words. take a listen. it was very terrifying. that didn t stop one of my friends getting hurt. i got
teachers were slaughtered. they took no action to get into those classrooms as they waited for more equipment. we pressed for more of an explanation, and the response was devastating. listen. reporter: sir, you have people who are alive, children who are calling 9-1-1 saying please, send the please. they are alive in that classroom. there are lives that are at risk. that s not protocol, is it? we re well aware of that. reporter: right, but why was this decision made not to go in and rescue these children? again, the on scene commander considered a barricaded subject, that there was time and there were no more children at risk. reporter: and what time was that? based upon the information we have, there were children in the classroom that were at risk, and it was, in fact, still an active shooter situation, and not a barricaded subject. reporter: right. sir, if i can follow up. reporter: what can you tell parents who were asking to go in? there was 19. like i
go on camera, but she did want to get that out. we re told she didn t want to speak to a male because of fear. she would only talk with a female, and after that we re also learning mia s family says they re planning to get her into the therapy. joining us is joel, a clinical and forensic psychologist and professor at the university of arizona. thank you for being here. i think you have an important role in helping all of us through the trauma, especially the families that are impacted firsthand. that little girl and the other kids, so many experienced just incredible trauma inside that school. it s horrific. your advice for their parents as they help them move forward? well, i think to not think of it in the short run, first of all, that whatever help kids will need should be thought about over a significant amount
what did mia do then? she had a friend next to her that she was pretty sure was already dead, and was laying on the ground bleeding out, and she put her hands in her friend s blood and then smeared it she said all over her body. she wanted to seem like she wanted to look like she was dead. she was scared the gunman was going to come back through the adjoining door back into the classroom, and she wanted to be able to play dead. she also told you that she called 9-1-1. yeah y. after she smeared the blood on her body, she and a friend were able to take the phone off of one of the teachers who had already been killed. they made contact with the dispatcher and talked to them for a little while and told them what was going on inside, and mia kept saying, telling me she kept saying we re in trouble, please come, please come, we re in trouble. and again, mia didn t want to