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I was standing in the doorway of the cloakroom
looking out just watching things as it was going on—
it was very quiet, no one was talking or moving.
Then right directly, kitty-corner across from me in the gallery—
the Visitors’ Gallery—in the corner over there,
in the southwest corner of the chamber, there’s some movement.
I just looked up, I saw the movement out of the corner of my eye,
and I looked up and this man stood up, and he had a dark suit on—
a tall, lanky guy, had a dark suit on—and it just caught my eye
when he looked up, when he moved I mean. I looked up and
he reached inside of his coat pocket and pulled out a pistol.
I just...that is a pistol. I couldn’t believe it; I knew it was a pistol.
And he started shooting right away. Then everybody started hitting
the ground and some Congressmen, like myself, just stood there
looking at the guy. Even some Members of Congress I heard say that,
later on say that, they thought it was firecrackers going off.
They weren’t looking, just heard the pop, pop, pop, pop. He’s shooting,
and then I remember the gun stopped. He emptied it out,
and he pulled the clip out, threw it down on the floor,
pulled another clip out of his pocket, put the clip in, and
he started shooting again. And his gun jammed about that time.
Well, then about that same time the second man stood up.
He pulled out a gun and he started shooting.
He was in a light blue suit, I remember that—a lighter suit, maybe grey.
And he started shooting. While the second guy was reloading and
did his shooting, the second guy, or the first guy with the second clip,
his gun quit on him or jammed. So he turned
and ran up the steps out of the gallery.
I learned later that as he ran out into the hallway out there
a cop was coming and nailed him,
and just hauled off and slugged him good and flattened him.