One of the students who survived Tuesday’s school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, said he avoided being killed because the gunman thought he was already dead.
Samuel Salinas, 10, appeared on “Good Morning America” on Friday and said that his school day started off like any other, until things changed.
“It was a normal day until my teacher said we’re on severe lockdown,” Samuel said. “And then there was shooting in the windows.”
The gunman came into Samuel’s fourth-grade classroom, closed the door and told the students, “You’re all going to die.”
He then opened fire, shooting the teacher before shooting at the kids.
“I think he was aiming at me,” Samuel said, adding that he thought the bullet hit a chair. When shrapnel struck his thigh and got lodged in his leg, he tried to look incapacitated.
“I played dead so he wouldn’t shoot me,” he said, adding that other classmates did the same.
At one point, a student’s cellphone started ringing, and there were gunshots as the girl tried to silence it. Police then engaged the gunman and rushed the surviving children out of the room, past the bodies of their dead teacher and classmates.
“There was blood on the ground,” Samuel said. “And there were kids […] full of blood.”
The child said he’s had nightmares about the shooter and of being shot, and expects that will be ongoing.
“Whenever there’s a lockdown, then I’ll be really scared,” he said.
Samuel said he isn’t looking forward to reuniting with other students who survived the shooting. “I’m just going to stay home and rest.”
