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At the hearing in the US House of Representatives, he cried: Miguel Cerrillo, father of fourth grader Miah
Photo: POOL / REUTERS
At a hearing in the US Congress, a girl told of her traumatic experiences in the massacre at her elementary school in Texas.
Eleven-year-old Miah Cerrillo told in a previously recorded video how the gunman shot her teacher and several classmates before her eyes.
"He said 'good night' to my teacher and shot her in the head," the fourth-grader said.
“Then he shot some of my classmates and the white board.
He shot my friend who was standing next to me... and I thought he was going to come back into the room.' Fearing the shooter, she smeared herself with the blood of others and kept quiet.
She called the police with her killed teacher's cell phone and asked for help.
Even today, she does not feel safe in her school.
"I don't want it to happen again," she said.
When asked if she feared that, she answered with a nod.
An 18-year-old gunman shot dead 19 children and two teachers two weeks ago at an elementary school in the small Texas town of Uvalde.
The attacker holed himself up with the students and teachers in two interconnected classrooms and caused the bloodbath there.
Miah's father, Miguel Cerrillo, said in tears at the hearing in the US House of Representatives that he almost lost his child.
"She's not the same anymore." He pleaded with Congressmen to do something about the unprecedented gun violence in the United States.
“Something really has to change.” Uvalde's attack has once again fueled the debate about tightening gun laws in the United States, which are lax in many places.
The parents of a little girl who was killed in the attack also testified via video at the hearing.
The mother reported in tears how she saw her daughter for the last time that day and left her at school.
“This decision will haunt me for the rest of my life.” On behalf of her daughter, she also called for gun laws to be tightened.
sak/dpa/Reuters
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