An 11-year-old who survived the Uvalde shooting by smearing a deceased classmate’s blood over her body and playing dead will testify before Congress next week.
Miah Cerillo will join those impacted by the Buffalo shooting to speak before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform for a hearing on 8 June titled “The Urgent Need to Address the Gun Violence Epidemic”.
“It is my hope that all my colleagues will listen with an open heart as gun violence survivors and loved ones recount one of the darkest days of their lives,” congresswoman Carolyn Maloney of New York, a Democrat who sits on the committee, said in a statement announcing the hearing.
“This hearing is ultimately about saving lives, and I hope it will galvanize my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to pass legislation to do just that.”
Miah was one of a group of 4th graders trapped for about an hour in a classroom with Uvalde gunman Salvador Ramos.
She told CNN she watched as the 18-year-old uttered the words “good night” before shooting one of her teachers.
He then went into an adjoining classroom where the 11-year-old heard the screams of her classmates and gunshots.
Miah then reportedly pulled a cell phone off one of her deceased teachers and called 911.
Worried that Ramos would come back and find her, the 11-year-old then covered herself in a dead student’s blood and played dead.
Ms Cerillo’s parents have said their daughter has been deeply traumatised by the whole experience.
Her parents have set up a GoFundMe to pay for therapy for their daughter, who they said is losing hair in clumps, not sleeping and being set off by loud noises like car alarms.
“We are asking if people could please donate to her GoFundMe,” the page reads.
“She will need a lot of help with all the trauma that she is going through. My daughter is an amazing person and is a very good sister to her siblings. We will need help with her medical expenses that were caused by the bullet fragment on her back.”
Whether Miah’s testimony has an impact on lawmakers remains to be seen.
A bipartisan group of senators are negotiating a potential package of gun reforms, though Connecticut Democratic senator Chris Murphy has warned that his Republican counterparts are unlikely to agree to an assault weapons ban or other wide-ranging gun control measures.
