Arnulfo Reyes woke up ready to have a great day at school. He was going to show his students the Addams Family movie – the animated version.
However, around 11:30 a.m., everything changed. Reyes said he heard a bang. Unsure what it was, he told the students to hide under the desks, as they had practiced.
The man says he is very sorry for the loss of the children felt by each parent, but he lost 11 that day, not just one, “all at once”.
Reyes said he heard officers approach the class in the hallway three times, but did not enter.
One of the students yelled at the officers and asked them to intervene, but to no avail.
“Officer, we are here. We are here… But (the police) had already left,” the man confessed.
“And then (the shooter) got up from behind the desk and went (towards the child) and started shooting again,” Reyes continued.
Seventy-seven minutes passed between the time the shooter entered the school and the time officers broke down the door and killed him, the teacher claims.
« They are cowards. They just sat there and did nothing for our community. It took them a long time to get in… I will never forgive them“, he pointed out.
The teacher was hit, then feigned unconsciousness, but the assailant shot him again, the bullet piercing his back and puncturing one of his lungs. As he lay by his desk, he heard police enter the school just minutes after the attacker, but, he says, it took over an hour for the police to storm class and kill the attacker.
“I prayed and prayed not to hear my students talking,” he said, adding that he had lost track of time, the only thing he could feel was that the blood was like a “ hourglass “.
In the 14 days following the attack, Reyes said he underwent five surgeries.
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