×
9-Year-Old School Shooting Survivor Recalls Terrifying Day At Robb Elementary: 'I Couldn't Sleep Last Night'
ADVERTISEMENT

9-Year-Old School Shooting Survivor Recalls Terrifying Day At Robb Elementary: 'I Couldn't Sleep Last Night'

'People kept saying that it was fireworks,' Adalynn recalled. 'I said, 'No, it was a gun'... because a firework does not sound like that.'

Cover Image Source: People visit memorials for victims of Tuesday's mass shooting at a Texas elementary school, in the City of Uvalde Town Square on May 26, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

When the sound of gunfire rang across Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday, 9-year-old Adalynn Garza and some of her peers took shelter in a classroom and practiced what they'd been taught about the Standard Response Protocol.

They knew through the regularly conducted lockdown drills that they had to turn off the lights and avoid drawing attention to themselves. "I just sat down and stayed at a level zero," Adalynn recounted to PEOPLE. "That means no talking and stay quiet." As the children hid, 19 of their schoolmates and two teachers in the fourth-grade building were shot dead by an 18-year-old shooter.

ADVERTISEMENT



 

"People kept saying that it was fireworks," Adalynn recalled. However, as she heard loud pops coming from across the school, the third-grader feared something worse was happening. "I said, 'No, it was a gun'... because a firework does not sound like that," she said. Although particularly astute for her age, Adalynn still has a lot to process about the traumatizing day. The youngster told reporters that one of her cousins had to climb out a window to escape the fourth-grade building and got sliced by glass on the way out.

ADVERTISEMENT



 

Meanwhile, another one of her cousins got her nose "cut off" after she was shot in the face and legs, said Adalynn. A third cousin had a bullet go through her arm but is fortunately home now as "she made it through surgery." Adalynn revealed she couldn't sleep in the aftermath of the shooting. "I couldn't sleep last night. Because when I was sleeping it just came through my head," she said. Speaking to CNN, a Texas law enforcement official said Thursday that the suspect, Salvador Ramos—who shot his grandmother and crashed his truck in a ditch outside the school at 11:28 a.m—was not confronted by police before he entered the school.

ADVERTISEMENT



 

"He walked in unobstructed initially," Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Regional Director Victor Escalon said. "So from the grandmother's house, to the (ditch), to the school, into the school, he was not confronted by anybody." According to Escalon, the shooter walked in through an apparently unlocked door at 11:40 a.m. and walked into a classroom and fired more than 25 times. Although officers arrived at the school at 11:44 a.m, about an hour passed before a US Border Patrol tactical team came to the classroom, forced entry and fatally shot the suspect, he said.

ADVERTISEMENT



 

Despite his death, Robb Elementary students will have a difficult time feeling safe at school in the future. "Unfortunately, to say that we can do one step and our kids will get over this and we'll all be over this [is false]. This has long-lasting effects on all of us," said Dr. Daniel Guzman of the Cook Children's Health Care System. "Letting the children know that we're there for them––that despite this horrific incident that occurred, that we are here to help them get through this and that they're safe. It doesn't feel that way right now obviously. It's going to take months, if not years, for these families to heal. The healing takes time." In the meantime, Adalynn shared that she feels "scared," because "what happens when it happens again?"

ADVERTISEMENT

References:

https://people.com/crime/texas-school-shooting-survivor-recalls-terrifying-events/

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/26/us/uvalde-texas-elementary-school-shooting-thursday/index.html

ADVERTISEMENT

Cover Image Source: People visit memorials for victims of Tuesday's mass shooting at a Texas elementary school, in the City of Uvalde Town Square on May 26, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)