A 7-year-old girl recounted the horrifying shooting that sent she and her classmates scrambling in a special needs classroom in San Bernardino Monday and left her teacher and a classmate dead.
"It was scary," said Brooklyn Hughes. "I was a brave girl."
Brooklyn ran from the room as the shots rang out at North Park Elementary School in the Southern California community at 10:27 a.m.
"I ran as fast as I can, and I lost a shoe," she said, pointing to her soiled sock.
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Brooklyn was one of 600 students evacuated from the school after Cedric Charles Anderson walked into her room and began firing at teacher Karen Elaine Smith as two students stood behind her.
"First he shoot the wall...shoot the projector and we was running," Brooklyn said.
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The horrifying shooting was an apparent murder-suicide in which children were "unfortunately involved," police said.
Brooklyn's classmate, 8-year-old Jonathan Martinez, died before getting to the operating room after he was struck by gunfire. A 9-year-old student was also hit by gunfire, but was in stable condition at Loma Linda University Medical Center, authorities said.
Kleigh Hughes, Brooklyn's mom, was among the hundreds of parents scrambling to get to the school to find out if their children were safe.
She said her friend told her about the shooting, but she never could have imagined the gunfire erupted in her daughter's room.
"It was terrifying because we couldn't get any real information and once we got here it was a lot of disorganization," Hughes said. "I didn't know what to do. I felt numb and scared. I could only imagine how she felt, being in there."
Once she had her daughter back in her arms, she said she felt utterly relieved.
"No one will ever understand how important it is for you to be able to see your kid's face, especially when something like this happens," Hughes said. "I'm just going to make sure I kiss my baby every day before she leaves for school and just pray to God every day that she makes it home safely."
Her daughter said she saw blood go across the room but the child didn't see her teacher get shot.
Both Hughes and her daughter said Smith was a good teacher.
