Mother talks moment her son came face-to-face with Uvalde school shooter
UVALDE, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) — An 8-year-old boy says he came face-to-face with the shooter who tragically took the lives of 21 victims at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas Tuesday.
CBS 11's Andrea Lucia spoke to his mother, who asked not be identified because of how close her son came to the shooter.
"I had no idea if he was dead or alive," she said. "No one was telling us anything. And it was scary. Really scary."
For two hours after learning of an active shooter on campus, she said she waited for news of her son, hoping he'd survived.
"When I saw him, I felt relief but then not really because of the other families that were lost in the shooting," she said.
She said her second grader had been on his way to the nurse's office to take his medication when he heard the gunshots.
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"He said he saw the gunman. He told me he saw him with big guns, 'Mommy, he had big old guns and I ran and I told my teacher' and he locked himself in his room.'"
Moments later, she said the shooter tried to open the door but couldn't.
Her son's class, she said, was able to lock the door and barricade it with desks. They then sat, she said, and listened to the gunshots ring out in their friends' room down the hall.
"He lost a few people he knew," she said.
READ MORE: Texas families looking for answers after Uvalde shooting
And even with her son home safe, she said she's hurting knowing so many parents in her community are in grief and how close she became to being one of them.
"I didn't sleep last night," she said. "I stayed in his room all day holding his hand, just there — sitting and praying. He woke up a few times when the thunder went off and he said, 'It's happening again.' And I said, 'No, baby. You're here, you're safe, and we're here for you for whatever you need."