A fourth-grade teacher wounded in the school mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, slammed local police as “cowards” for standing by outside his classroom while the gunman killed all 11 of his young students as they called out for help.
“You have a bulletproof vest, I had nothing. You’re supposed to protect and serve. There is no excuse for their actions and I will never forgive them. I will never forgive them,” Arnulfo Reyes said in an interview with “Good Morning America” Tuesday from a hospital, where he’s recovering from multiple gunshot wounds.
Reyes said his class was watching a movie following a student awards ceremony around 11:30 a.m. on May 24 when they heard gunshots. He directed the kids to get under a table, just as they were trained, and told them to “act like you’re asleep.”
“I don’t know what’s going on, but let’s go ahead and get under the table. Get under the table and act like you’re asleep,” Reyes told his students.
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“One of the students from the next-door classroom was saying, ‘Officer, we’re in here. We’re in here,’” Mr. Reyes said. “But they had already left.”
The students “were going under the table, and I was trying to get them to do that as fast as I could”.
“When I turned around, I just saw him,” he added.
The gunman immediately began firing into the classroom, Reyes said. He was struck by two bullets – one went through his arm and lung and the other struck him in the back.
The gunman killed 19 students — including every child in Reyes’ classroom — and two teachers during the rampage.
Watch the interview below:
EXCLUSIVE: Arnulfo Reyes, teacher wounded in Uvalde shooting, to @arobach: “I will not let these children and my coworkers die in vain. I will not. I will go to the end of the world to not let my students die in vain.” https://t.co/0pvPuyw2g1 pic.twitter.com/uj1yZRAsAK
— Good Morning America (@GMA) June 7, 2022
