A Minneapolis couple who lives one block from the Annunciation Catholic School and the church where two children were killed and 18 other people were injured on Wednesday who remembered the moments after they heard the shots from their home.
Carla and Pedro Maldonado were in their kitchen when they heard the shots and realized after the second round that came from school.
“I did not want to believe at the beginning that it was shots, but immediately my husband knew it,” said Carla Maldonado on Thursday in “now attentive to NBC News.
She went to the back of the school when her husband began to drive forward. While running, Carla said, she met another mother who lives nearby.
“I felt something ricochet, I hit my ankle and thought:” There is no way to be the fireworks, “he said. Then her friend commented that someone had a gun.
“He had a visual about the shooter, and immediately after that, we met his house,” he added.
Pedro said he arrived at the scene before the police and directed the officers who arrived at the back, where he said the shooter was. He said he entered the church, next to the school, after the doors opened. At first, he did not see any child because they were on the ground, but then he began to see some, who were injured, arose.
Fletcher Merkel, 8, and Harper Moyski, 10, were killed in the shooting. Another fifteen children, from 6 to 15 years old, were injured, as were three parishioners in their 80 years. Everyone is expected to survive.
In the midst of chaos, he said, Pedro tried to help and then frantically looked for his children, Pilar and Pablo.
“I was shouting behind them for a while, until I started shouting Spanish, their name and ‘Where are you?’ In Spanish. And that’s where Pilar found me, ”he said. “She came to me crying and said: ‘I can’t find Pablo.’ And then I call my wife to tell her that I have Pili, but I can’t find Paul.
Pilar, 7, remembered to meet with his father.
“He felt really good, because when the shots ended, I thought: ‘Where is my mother and where is my dad?'” He said. “I need them, because the shots are really intense for just a 7 -year -old child.”
Pablo, 11, recalled the moment when shots broke out while he was in Mass.
He said he was bending down and kneeling when they shot themselves, but did not believe he was in a safe place, so he covered himself under a bank.
Pablo said he evacuated a nearby preschool room, where he remembers seeing people “falling down the stairs” while escaping. The teachers locked the door to protect the students and called 911, he said.
More than 100 rifle rounds of the scene were recovered, according to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara.
The shooter died of a self -inflicted gunshot wound, police said. The authorities have not identified a clear reason, but O’Hara said that the suspect was intended to terrorize children.
Carla and Pedro are struggling to explain the horrible events to their children and find it difficult to understand what they happened.
“Time simply makes no sense at this time, so we are literally taking things for an hour at the same time,” said Carla.
