A Uvalde, Texas, pediatrician describes the horror of seeing the elementary school children's bodies 'ripped apart'

• A Uvalde, Texas, pediatrician detailed gruesome scenes at a hospital after the May 24 mass shooting.
• Testifying in front of Congress, Roy Guerrero said he saw things "no prayer will ever relieve."

A pediatrician from Uvalde, Texas, detailed the horror of seeing children's bodies "ripped apart" following a May 24 mass shooting as he testified to Congress on Wednesday.

"I was called here today as a witness, but I showed up because I am a doctor, because how many years ago I swore an oath — an oath to do no harm," Roy Guerrero, president of Uvalde Memorial Hospital, told lawmakers during the House Oversight and Reform Committee's hearing on gun violence.

"After witnessing first hand the carnage in my hometown of Uvalde, to stay silent would have betrayed that oath," he added.

Guerrero said he arrived at the hospital shortly after the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School, which left 19 children and two adults dead. He described chaos outside the hospital as families tried to find their children and cried as they waited for news.

In the surgical area of the hospital, Guerrero said he saw things that "no prayer will ever relieve."

"Two children whose bodies had been pulverized by bullets fired at them, decapitated, whose flesh had been ripped apart," he said. "That the only clue as to their identities was blood-splattered cartoon clothes still clinging to them, clinging for life and finding none."

Guerrero continued: "I could only hope these two bodies were a tragic exception to the list of survivors. But as I waited there with my fellow Uvalde doctors, nurses, first responders, and hospital staff for other casualties we hoped to save — they never arrived. All that remained was the bodies of 17 more children and the two teachers who cared for them."