UVALDE, Texas — On the morning of May 24, Angeli Gomez was inside Robb Elementary School to witness her kids' graduation ceremonies.
Once the events were over, she headed for work, thinking it would be a normal day. But she was wrong.
Gomez had just got to work when she heard of the shooting that was happening at her children's school — the school she had just left. So she quickly jumped back in her car and rushed right back to Robb Elementary.
Gomez said as soon as she parked near the school she was approached by U.S. Marshals who told her she wasn't allowed to park there. Gomez refused to leave, as she was more concerned about getting inside the building and saving her sons.
"And he said, well, we're going to have to arrest you because you're being very uncooperative," Gomez told CBS News. "I said, 'Well, you're going to have to arrest me because I'm going in there. And I'm telling you right now, I don't see none of y'all in there. Y'all are standing with snipers and y'all are far away.'"
Gomez said the Marshals put her in cuffs to prevent her from going inside, but the minute they uncuffed her, she jumped a fence and ran towards the school to save her kids.
"I jumped that first gate fence and once I jumped in, I went to my son's class and I knocked on the door. And I remember the teacher saying, 'I'm like, hey, they're already cutting the fence to get me," Gomez said. " She's like, 'you think we have time to get out.' I said 'yall have time, I'm going to run for my other son.'"
Once she was assured her son was OK, she ran to get her other child.
"And as I see that they're opening my son's door, I go run for my son and I get him," Gomez said.
The courageous mother was caught on camera running out of the school with both of her kids in her hands. She said till this day, she still can't shake the thought of those who didn't make it.
"The gunshots were still active. They were not in there. There was no one in there. If anything, when I pulled out, my car was closer to the school than that," Gomez said. "They could have saved many more lives. They could have gone into that classroom and maybe two or three would have been gone. But they could have saved, the whole, more, the whole class. They could have done something, gone through the window, sniped him through the window, I mean something, but nothing was being done."
Gomez said law enforcement was being more aggressive to the worried parents outside the school.
"I told one of the officers, 'I don't need you to protect me, get away from me, I don't need your protection. If anything I need you to go in there with me to go protect my kids,'" she said.
For perspective, Gomez wasn't in the hallway where 19 officers were trying to gain access to the classroom where the shooter was. But still, her frustration is something that many relate to.
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