Arnulfo Reyes, a fourth-grade teacher who was wounded in the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, says he told his students to hide under their tables and "act like you're asleep" after he first heard gunshots.
Reyes spoke with ABC News' Amy Robach from his room at a hospital in San Antonio, where he is receiving treatment. The interview will air on Good Morning America Tuesday.
Reyes told Robach that he was in his classroom, Room 111, watching a movie with 11 students when the attack began. Reyes said the students asked what was happening, and he responded, "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." After he said that, Reyes recounted, he turned around and saw the 18-year-old gunman standing in the room.
The gunman opened fire, and Reyes was shot twice, with one bullet hitting his back and the other going through an arm and lung. Once Reyes was down and unable to move, the gunman started shooting the children, he said. Reyes told Robach he believes that soon after, police officers were outside of his room, but they apparently retreated down the hallway. "One of the students from the next door classroom was saying, 'Officer, we're in here. We're in here,'" Reyes said. "But they had already left."
Reyes said he didn't hear officers again until they demanded that the gunman — who was going back and forth between Room 111 and Room 112, shooting at people — come out, promising they would not hurt him. It was quiet, Reyes told Robach, until Border Patrol officers burst in and fatally shot the gunman.
The gunman shot and killed 19 students and two teachers, and ABC News reports that none of the children in Reyes' classroom survived the massacre.