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New Day

Survivor Says She Smeared Friend's Blood on Herself to Play Dead; Close-knit Uvalde Community Grieves After 21 Killed in School; NRA Convention will Go on In Texas, Trump to Speak. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired May 27, 2022 - 08:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[08:32:33]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, our exclusive conversation with an 11-year-old girl who survived the worst of the attack here at the Robb Elementary School. 11-year-old fourth grader Miah Cerrillo was in class. They were watching Lilo & Stitch because all their classwork is done. This was the end of school. They're watching a movie when the shooter came to the door. She says the shooter looked the teacher in the eye and said good night and then killed her.

Miah also says after the shooter went to the next classroom she could hear music. She believed the shooter was playing music during the massacre. She described it as sad music. She said it sounded like I Want to Kill You, music.

Miah also told us what she did to survive as she was in the classroom. One of her classmates was on the floor bleeding, dead. Ultimately. Miah, put her hands in blood and then put it on herself so that she would look dead so that she could play dead. She was concerned that the killer who had already moved to the next classroom was going to come back. She also said that she used her teachers phone to call 911 and told the operator we are in trouble. We are in trouble. She said it felt like three hours that this lasted. Her mother told her no, no, no honey was only an hour. And then Miah also said at the time, it felt like police weren't there. She didn't know that police were even there. And she has become upset over these last few days as she has learned that the police are outside there.

Miah talk to CNN producer, Nora Neus. What's -- just give you a sense of how sad this all is. Miah desperately wants to tell her story. She wants people to know what happened inside that classroom because she doesn't want it to happen to other kids. She wanted to get her story out there. She didn't want to be on camera. She also is too scared to talk to men right now because of what she went through. So this close- knit of community -- this close-knit community continues to try to process everything that happened here.

CNN's Rosa Flores has been here talking with the grieving community members and she joins us from the town square nearby. Rose, everyone here still trying to figure out some kind of way to handle all of this. [08:35:05]

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And you know, John, I've talked to a lot of people here and there is just such profound pain. And there's also a lot of love. This town square that's near where you are, has turned into a growing memorial. You can see that there are 21 crosses behind me, each with a growing memorial and each with messages of love etched on each cross.

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FLORES: In the small town of Uvalde, Texas hearts are heavy.

DENISE LONG, UVALDE RESIDENT: I lost family and friends to this and I can't bear it.

FLORES: And the pain is palpable.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My heart aches that couldn't imagine my life without my daughter.

FLORES: As the community grapples with the unthinkable, 19 elementary school children and two teachers murdered in the classroom. The Quaint Town Square turned into a memorial.

LONG: I just can't I have no more tears after crying all day yesterday, and I can't.

FLORES: With crosses bearing the names of every victim.

(On camera): How are you doing?

DELI MARTINEZ, UVALDE RESIDENT: Heartbroken.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Especially the parents.

MARTINEZ: Yeah, the parents is like, oh my gosh.

FLORES: Emotions are high at the nearby Mexican restaurant, a local staple for a town that is overwhelmingly Hispanic. Deli Martinez was born and raised here. She attended Robb Elementary.

MARTINEZ: We are like a big family here, we really are. And it's unfortunate what happened here. It really is.

FLORES: In Uvalde, it seems like everyone knows someone who was impacted by this tragedy. Victor Rivera moved here recently and says even he knows multiple people who lost children.

VICTOR RIVERA, UVALDE RESIDENT: Pray that the families are OK. And pray that the kids rest in peace.

FLORES: The pain spring, the gun debate, with some residents pushing for upping the minimum age to purchase guns.

MARTINEZ: Let anybody use a gun that's 20 years -- 21 years and older. We need guns. We need to protect ourselves.

FLORES: And for the arming of teachers.

LIZA CAZARES, UVALDE RESIDENT: Teachers should be able to carry, indefinitely that's one of them. Like, how are you supposed to protect the kids behind the closed door when the gun can definitely go through it?

FLORES: One by one, members of the community have been delivering flowers to another growing memorial. This one is also a crime scene.

LONG: I went to school here. And my niece lives down the street. My family lives, not even right behind the school. This is my home.

FLORES: For many members of this community, the pain is overwhelming. Like for this grandmother who was overcome with emotion. Her words are etched on the cross of one of the victims. She wrote, I will always love you, my beautiful granddaughter.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Only God can bring healing, definitely. God will heal Uvalde.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES: Now, some of the other messages on these crosses show the fabric of this community as well. They're both in English and in Spanish. This community is mostly Hispanic. And John, I can tell you that the cross for one of the teachers, Irma Garcia is right behind me. I just went to take a look. And you can see that some of the students that she taught have come back and written messages. They say class of 92, class of so and so as they come back and memorialize their teacher.

The cross of Amerie Jo Garza is also right behind me. She's the little girl that you remember, was dialing 911, a lot of the words on her cross say, hero, John.

BERMAN: The messages are beautiful, Rosa, they're beautiful. They're also really hard to read. It really does get to you when you read them, when you read the messages. The teachers you realize the hundreds and hundreds of lives that they've touched over the decades in this community and the outpouring of emotion is just remarkable. Rosa Flores, thank you so much for the report.

All right, just in, we are now hearing from the killer's mother. She has a message to the victims and their families.

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[08:43:57]

BERMAN: This just into CNN, the mother of the killer was interviewed by CNN affiliate Televisa. I want you to listen to what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ADRIANA MARTINEZ, MOTHER OF GUNMAN IN UVALDE SCHOOL SHOOTING (through translator): I have no words. I have no words to say. I don't know what he was thinking. He had his reasons for doing what he did. And please don't judge him. I only want the innocent children who died to forgive me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you tell their families?

MARTINEZ: Forgive me, forgive my son. I know he had his reasons.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What reasons could he have had?

MARTINEZ: To get closer to those children instead of paying attention to the other bad things, I have no words. I don't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The mother of the killer right there. We have just learned the identity of another victim in this shooting. Her name is Maite Rodriguez. She was 10 years old. My mother says, Maite dreamed of becoming a marine biologist and had her heart center in attending Texas A&M. Look at that smile.

[08:45:11]

We are told she was sweet, charismatic, loving, caring, and loyal, free, ambitious, funny, silly, and goal-driven. A mother ended a Facebook post with this message to her daughter. She said, it's not goodbye, I'll see you later my sweet girl. I love you.

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Today, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz will be among several Republicans to speak at the NRA Annual Meeting in Houston, Texas. That's about a four hour drive from where an 18-year- old killed 19 children and two teachers with an AR-15 style rifle. Texas Governor Greg Abbott canceled his in-person appearance. He is though delivering a video address there in order to attend a press conference in Uvalde.

[08:50:10]

The NRA said in a statement, "as we gather in Houston, we will reflect on these events, pray for the victims, recognize our patriotic members and pledged to redouble our commitment to making our schools secure."

Joining me now is Tim Mak. He is an NPR Investigative Correspondent. He's also the author of a tremendous book. It's called Misfire: Inside the Downfall of the NRA.

Tim, this conference is continuing, you actually have many artists like musical artists who are going to perform including Lee, Gatlin who pulled out, they canceled their performances, because they don't think now is the right time to do this. And yet it continues with Ted Cruz and former President Trump going? TIM MAK, INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT, NPR: Yeah, you mentioned that Governor Abbott is not going to be attending in-person, but instead via a kind of video statement. Senator John Cornyn and Congressman Dan Crenshaw have also said, or made various reasons for not attending. But generally it's going to continue. And what we've seen over the last two decades, since Columbine is an NRA that has made up its mind about how it's going to respond to mass shootings like the mass shooting that we saw here in Texas, and that is to say that there needs to be some time for respect, but to generally take no responsibility and to say that guns are not the problem, not the reasons for why these mass shootings are occurring, and that our meetings and our activities, and our lobbying should continue just as before.

KEILAR: Yeah, your excellent reporting, has shown that the inflection point of all of that followed the Columbine shooting, when just days after the NRA conference was scheduled to happen in Denver. And yesterday, you reminded us of that putting back out those audio recordings of some internal deliberations about how they or whether or not they should proceed. And here's one of those clips.

NRA OFFICIAL: I got to tell you, we got to think this through because if we tuck tail and run, we're going to be accepting responsibility for what happened out there.

PR CONSULTANT: That's one very good argument, Jim, on the other side, if you don't appear to be deferential and honoring the dead, you end up being a tremendous (bleep) who wouldn't tuck and run.

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KEILAR: I also, Tim, just want to read what the NRA said in response to that. I mean, that's them talking about it, by the way, that is them discussing it. But they said it is disappointing that anyone would promote an editorial agenda against the NRA by using shadowy sources and mystery tapes in order to conjure up the tragic events of over 20 years ago. I mean, just be clear with us that, that's not really a mystery tape.

MAK: No, it's an actual tape. It's a tape of what happened inside the room on a conference call between NRA execs just after the Columbine shootings. And what you hear is NRA executives 20 years ago, thinking about whether they should maybe cancel their convention right after Columbine. And there are echoes of that here today, right, that there's this annual convention in Texas right after a mass shooting. But you see no hesitation, at least publicly with the NRA, that over the years this, this kind of playbook after mass shooting has calcified, has become sadly repeatedly and repeatedly used. The NRA no longer has these sorts of deliberations as far as I can tell. They know what they're going to do after mass shootings. They know generally what they're going to say and how they're going to handle it. And we see that in practice, as the NRA convention kicks off today with, you know, the addresses by Donald Trump and other leading politicians in -- on the right.

KEILAR: Yeah, it is a reflex. Tim, thank you so much as always for being with us. We appreciate it.

MAK: Thank you for having me.

KEILAR: Even more heartbreak in Uvalde, Texas as the grieving husband is one of the two teachers killed dies of a heart attack. We're live from Texas, coming up.

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[08:58:37]

KEILAR: The Uvalde School massacre has left many parents asking, what do we say to our kids? One former CNN Hero has some advice.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Children around the world may experience some type of stress response, it could trigger previous crisis that they may have experienced. And it's really important for adults to observe the reactions that their children may have as a result of this event. Having sleep problems and eating problems, having anxiety and worries, they may be more clingy to their parents. They may even have a fear of going to school. Hug your child, ask them questions about their feelings, don't provide more information than what they're asking. Help them to understand that things happen sometimes and we have no answers.

Keep some type of structure and routine in their lives so that they can feel safe. We all need to learn from this experience. How we can best help our young people to grow up to be healthy individuals psychologically, emotionally and physically. We can get through this crisis. We can get through together, supporting one another so that hopefully we can prevent something like this from ever happening again.

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[09:00:08]

KEILAR: To learn more about Annette services and to nominate someone that you think should be a CNN hero, go to CNN Heroes.com and CNN is coverage continues right now.