Uvalde Families Plead for Congress to Strengthen Gun Laws: 'I Will Never Forget What I Saw That Day'

Among the chorus of voices urging lawmakers to do something about gun violence on Wednesday were people connected to the recent mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two teachers were killed by a gunman with an AR-15-style rifle at Robb Elementary School.

Though their testimonies differed, the message was the same: more, and stronger, laws are needed to prevent similar tragedies from occurring again.

One of the first to offer his testimony Wednesday morning, during a hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, was Dr. Roy Guerrero, a pediatrician who treated many of the victims of the Uvalde shooting.

"I know I will never forget what I saw that day," Guerrero said of May 24, the day the shooting occurred.

Reflecting on his own time in elementary school, Guerrero said he remembered the smell of the cafeteria on hamburger Thursday and the laughter ringing in the halls. Unlike him, he added, the students of Uvalde will be "haunted by panic and chaos."

"Those mothers' cries I will never get out of my head," Guerrero said.

The first student he came across, he said, was 11-year-old Miah Cerrillo, a student in Uvalde who covered herself in her dead classmate's blood in an effort to avoid being shot. Miah, he said, was "in shock" and shaking from adrenaline.

"The white Lilo & Stitch shirt she wore was covered in blood and her shoulder was bleeding from a shrapnel injury," Guerrero said. "Sweet Miah. I've known her my whole life. As a baby she survived major liver surgeries, against all odds. And once again she's here, as a survivor. Inspiring us with her story today and her bravery."

Elsewhere in his testimony, Guerrero chided lawmakers who have failed to strengthen gun laws — or allowed some to lapse without debating new measures.

"[Children are] dead because restrictions were allowed to lapse," Guerrero said. "They're dead because there are no rules about where guns are kept — because no one is paying attention to who is buying them."

In her own testimony, which was pre-recorded, Miah described the moments before the shooting began, saying her teacher got an email and went to lock the door, where she encountered the gunman in the hallway.

"They made eye contact, and then she went back in the room and told us to 'Go hide,'" Miah recounted, adding that the gunman then shot a window in the door of her classroom, and entered, shooting her teacher in the head while the students hid.

"He shot my friend Elizabeth. I thought he was going to come back to the room so I grabbed the blood and put it all over me," she said. "And then I got my teacher's phone and called 911 ... and told them that we need help."

Asked whether she felt safe in school, Miah nodded "no," saying she fears something similar could happen again.

In his own testimony, Miah's father tearfully told lawmakers that he "could have lost my baby girl."

"She is not the same little girl" since the shooting, he said, calling her "daddy's little girl," and noting that she is the middle of five children.

Also testifying Wednesday were Kimberly and Felix Rubio, the parents of 10-year-old Lexi Rubio, who was shot and killed at Robb Elementary.

Explaining how she dropped Lexi and her brother off at school the morning of May 24, Kimberly said she and her husband (who is a police officer and Iraq war veteran) had returned to the school twice that day — once at 8 a.m. for their son's awards ceremony, and again at 10 a.m., for Lexi's awards ceremony.

"To celebrate we promised to get her ice cream that evening, we told her we loved her and that we'd pick her up after school," she said. "I can still see her walking with us toward the exit."

"In the reel that keeps scrolling across my memories, she turns her head to smile back at us and to acknowledge my promise," Kimberly said. "And then we left. I left my daughter at that school, and the decision will haunt me for the rest of my life."

Back at work as a reporter at the Uvalde Leader News, Kimberly overheard the news about the shooting on a police scanner. Soon, she learned her son was safe and she went to the local civic center to await reunification with her daughter.

"Bus after bus arrived, but she wasn't on board," she said.

Hours later and after visiting area hospitals to provide a description of her daughter, Kimberly said she ran a mile to the school — "I ran barefoot, with my flimsy sandals in my hand."

From there, the Rubios were told to return to the civic center.

"Soon after, we received the news that our daughter was among the 19 students and two teachers that died as a result of gun violence," she said.

Kimberly went on to urge lawmakers to strengthen gun laws by banning assault rifles and high-capacity magazines, raising the age to purchase a weapon to 21, and strengthening background checks.

"We understand that for some reason, to some people — to people with money, to people who flood political campaigns — that guns are more important than children," she said. "So at this moment, we ask for progress."

Kimberly continued: "Somewhere out there, there is a mom listening to our testimony, thinking, 'I can't even imagine their pain,' not knowing that our reality will one day be hers unless we act now."

To express your opinion on gun reform proposals to your own representatives in Congress, you can look them up and contact them here: congress.gov/members