Being in lockdown--no one could leave or enter the buildings--is no fun. Meetings and events were cancelled and everybody pretty much settled in, fielding calls and emails asking if we were ok. We all monitored email from the Admirals who had vacated 197 and set up a command post behind my building. They did a good job keeping us abreast of what was happening and we usually got news well ahead of what was being reported on the media outlets.
Regardless, rumors swept through the office quickly and often. We heard the gun man was pissed about sequestration, that it was a terrorist attack, that it was a white separatist group. We heard the gun man got in using someone else's credentials, that there were shootings 5 blocks away from the Navy Yard and at an Air Force base nearby. That Capitol Hill had been attacked. We heard the shooter(s) were wearing military uniforms. One was white wearing khakis and a beret. One was black, in his 50s. That one had an assault weapon, one a handgun, etc.
IOW, nobody knew much of anything.
Which raises an obvious point: those claiming some fat, untrained gunloon could have made the situation better by allowing him to run around waving his piece is simple lunacy. Moreover, where the gunman did most of his killing is not an area conducive to throwing around a lot of lead. Government offices are generally pretty cramped with a lot of people jammed into not a whole lot of space.
Continued...
Thank you Jadegold. How fascinating to hear someone you actually know give a firsthand account of the perspective from one of the neighboring buildings. Sad piece of history, just the same.
ReplyDeleteI would guess that shooter's illness was in no small part related to his association with guns. I don't think it's healthy to carry guns and fantasize about killing people.