4th-Grader Played Dead During Shooting

Another wrenching story has emerged from one of the young survivors in the Texas school shooting. Fourth grader Miah Cerrillo tells CNN that she smeared blood from a classmate over herself to play dead. The classmate already had been killed by the gunman. Miah recounts how the gunman shot out the window of her classroom door just as one of two teachers went to lock it. The gunman entered the classroom and continued shooting, then went through a door into an adjoining classroom, the 11-year-old recalls. That's when Miah says she and a classmate retrieved a phone from their slain teacher and called 911. She recalls saying something like, "Please come ... we're in trouble."

At a news conference Friday, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said multiple calls came in from students and teachers as the shooting unfolded, per the AP. One girl told a dispatcher, "Please send the police now," he said. It's possible that was Miah, who told CNN she doesn't understand why police waited so long to come rescue her and others. ("It was the wrong decision," McCraw acknowledged on Friday.) Miah was treated and released from the hospital after being wounded by bullet fragments. (More Uvalde mass shooting stories.)