By mgarcia@ulnnow.com | on June 30, 2022

After opening fire in Robb Elementary School, 18-year-old gunman and Uvalde High School dropout Salvador Ramos inflicted mental warfare on wounded fourth-grade teacher Arnulfo Reyes, the lone survivor of his classroom.

“He tried to do so many things to get me to flinch – but I was hurting so bad I couldn’t respond,” Reyes said, adding that the gunman sat down on a nearby kidney-shaped table, found cold water in a thermos-like container, and poured it out so that it ran onto his back.

Reyes said he didn’t respond, so Ramos then placed his own hand in the teacher’s pooling blood.

“He threw the blood on my face,” Reyes said.

Reyes remembers his cell phone, which was on the desk, was ringing.

Arnulfo Reyes at home in Uvalde, after a month in the hospital for gunshot wounds inflicted May 24, 2022, at Robb Elementary School.

Ramos picked up the ringing phone and placed it on Reyes’ back. He then began picking up the phone and dropping it on the teacher’s back.

Reyes said his phone kept ringing.

“He did that about four times… I was just thinking to myself he would shoot my phone, getting tired of the noise.” Reyes said. “He was there for a long time.”

Reyes said he could hear police in the hallway, calling out to Ramos. He said Ramos’ only response was to clear his throat.

He said the police waited to enter his room, despite calls from the classroom next door, “Officers, we’re in here.”

Ramos shot Reyes again. This time the bullet struck his back.

Reyes said parts of the timeline are blurry, but he believes he did not lose consciousness.

ABC News reported that at 12:19 p.m., over 40 minutes after the gunman entered the school at 11:33 a.m., a student in Reyes’ class called 911.

Reyes said he does not have a recollection of a student calling 911 but understands it was Rojelio Torres.

“When they said that, I believe it to be true. Rojelio was very ambitious. He wanted to be the best at everything,” Reyes said. “It didn’t surprise me when they said that. He probably did call.”

When help arrived, he said he remembers reading a “Border Patrol,” tag and being dragged out of his classroom by his feet. There was confusion about how he would be taken to the hospital, before being lifted into a waiting ambulance.

Though he is in recovery for gunshot wounds to the arm and back and needs the help of others, Reyes said he is happy to be home after a month-long stay at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, where he underwent approximately 10 surgeries.

Arriving at BAMC having lost 70 percent of his blood, he has vivid memories of that tragic day and easily recalls the “eternity” of the 77 minutes it took for someone to render him aid.

He described his students as fun children who loved to play and joke around. From the very beginning, he said, he knew this class would be different.

A few weeks before that day, 10-year-old Eliahna Torres was in tears, worried he would forget her because she was going to Flores next year and they wouldn’t see each other.

He said he reassured Eliahna, whom he described as sassy and a bit dramatic, that it would be okay.

“I know your mother,” he reminded her, and said he couldn’t forget her. That sentiment, he says, was and will always be true, but it gained new meaning on May 24.

He said he will forever remember Eliahna and her 10 classmates.

“I loved all of them,” he said.

His plan for May 24 was for the students to have fun. His class of 18 had recently finished taking state standardized tests. With an end-of-year awards ceremony scheduled that morning, he opted for a movie day and put on “The Addams Family.”

They paused the movie for the ceremony, and some of his students left with their parents for the day.

Eleven of his students stayed behind: Alexandria Rubio, Eliahna Torres, Rojelio Torres, Jose Flores Jr., Xavier Lopez, Annabell Rodriguez, Jackie Cazares, Naveah Bravo, Layla Salazar, Uziyah Garcia and Jayce Luevanos.

When they got back to the classroom, he said everybody picked a spot on the floor. He turned out the lights and resumed the movie.

“We were comfortable,” Reyes said.

He had grading to complete, so he was situated at his desk.

“All of the sudden,” he said, “we hear the first shots – boom, boom, boom.”

At that time, he didn’t know what the sounds were.

“As they were getting louder and closer, the students started asking, ‘What is going on?’” he said.

He initially thought it could be a drill until he saw Sheetrock flying inside his classroom.

He told the students to do what they had always practiced: get underneath a long table that was pushed up against a wall. He said he told them to act like they were sleeping.

“I didn’t want them to see something ugly,” Reyes said.

He headed to his practiced position, which was an area of the room where he could strategically see the doorways and the windows.

“When I went around my kidney table to get to my spot, I got shot. And I fell to the floor,” Reyes said. “By then, he had already entered my room.”

Reyes’ classroom had two doors. One door led to the hallway. The other led to the fourth-grade classroom shared by teachers Irma Garcia and Eva Mireles.

He said both doors were closed, with the pass-through door being unlocked. That is how, he said, the gunman entered his room.

After shooting Reyes the first time, Ramos, who Reyes said was once a student in that very classroom, turned his gun on the students.

“He was going to find us no matter what,” Reyes said, adding that there was no training that could prepare for this type of event, especially when Ramos knew the layout of the school and was familiar with UCISD protocols.

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