Worth recording and checking the waveform visually.
But that's the only additional shooter I can be sure of.
[Ellen: Jesus, you’re the security officer, and you were called to check on a door that was, I guess that when a door is left open a certain amount of time, you’re supposed to go check on it, right?]
(Jesus) Yes, we get a notifications making sure that uh, to secure them, or if they’ve already been secured then making that uh, that check on the doors.
[Ellen: Okay, so you were going up the fire escape to get there?]
(Jesus) Via the stairwell, from I was coming from the 31st up to the 32nd. Uh, when I approached the door, it didn’t open, and it was blocked off, so I had to re-route.
[Ellen: Is that a normal thing? That the door, the fire escape, the stairwell, would be blocked off?]
(Jesus) No. They’re always supposed to remain open. And so umm, afterward I dropped down, and came back through the hallway, and then I approached the room, got into the door, there was a metal bracket holding the door in place.
[Ellen: Right, so what we’re talking about here, just so everybody is clear. Okay, so, this is where the, the hotel room where is, where the shooter was. This is the stairway where, and this doorway here was blocked, and you didn’t know that till you came up and, and through the elevator, and went through this door and saw that there was something blocking that door. And when you saw that, did you think, that’s weird, why would somebody put brackets on a door?]
(Jesus) Yeah, that’s just out of the ordinary.
[Ellen: That was the beginning?]
(Jesus) Yeah.
[Ellen: Okay. Then you walk out of this and this just slammed?]
(Jesus) Well, when I was in between that area, I was calling security dispatch to get transferred to engineering, they didn’t know anything about it, so they dispatched an engineer to go verify what that was. [And that’s when you got called? (Stephen) Yes] And at that time I heard what I assumed it was drilling sounds. And I believed that they were in the area working somehow.
[Ellen: So, you thought the drilling, they were gunshots, but you thought it was just drilling sounds.]
(Jesus) At first I think it was just drilling sounds.
[Ellen: Right. So then, at what point do you get shot? What happens here?]
(Jesus) As that door is closing and it’s so heavy it’ll slam. I was walking down this way, and I believe that’s what caught the shooter’s attention. As I was walking down, I heard rapid fire, and at first I took cover. I felt a burning sensation. I went to go lift my pant leg up and I saw the blood. And that’s when I called it in on my radio that shots had been fired. And I was going to say that I was hit, but I got on over my cell phone just to clear that radio traffic for they can coordinate the rest of the call.
[Ellen: …So, he shot. You didn’t even know he shot through this door, right?]
(Jesus)Yeah, from behind the door. I don’t know how he was shooting, but he shot out.
[Ellen: Right. So, you didn’t even know it was coming from here. So Steven, at this point, so you’re called up. You just think that you’re coming to look at a door that’s been blocked in the firewell, right?]
(Stephen) Yeah, I didn’t think anything out of the ordinary at the time. I came from a higher floor and came down on a different hallway service elevator and I walked out and I rounded the corner for the 100 hallway, and that’s when I, you know it’s quiet at this time, and the doors are set back as you can see in that, about a foot, and Jesus was toward the end of the hallway, but I didn’t know at that time. I thought I saw someone, like, pop out of the cubby, and I kept walking, and once I got more than half way is when I saw Jesus and I started to hear shooting, and I thought, at the time I didn’t know it was shooting, I thought it was a jackhammer, and as an engineer, I’m like we’re not working up here this late at night, we wouldn’t be doing that. And it was, I believe outside, it wasn’t in the hallway yet. And that’s when Jesus, he uh, he leaned out, and said, “take cover, take cover” and yelled at me, and within milliseconds, if he didn’t say that, I would have got hit.
[Ellen: Because he was still shooting. So, you would have been hit had he not told you…]
(Stephen) Yeah, I wasn’t fully in cover and they were passing behind my head, and I could feel the pressure…
[Ellen: You could feel the pressure going past you just even being out of the way.]
(Stephen) Yes.
[Ellen: And were guests coming out of the doorways?]
(Jesus) Umm, there was a female that came out, and I told her to go back inside it wasn’t safe. Shortly after, that’s when Stephen was approaching, and I told him to stay back and get cover. And that’s when more rounds were dispersed.
[Ellen: Right. Wow. So, really, he saved your life. He saved also the woman who came out the door to go into the hallway. First of all, thank you so much for being here. I know you’ve had so many people asking for you to tell the story and to talk about this, and I understand your reluctance because you just want this to be over, so you’re talking about it now and you’re not going to talk about it again and I don’t blame you because why relive this over and over again, but it’s helpful for people to understand what a hero you are, because you, being shot in the leg, saved so many people’s lives, and instead of you just getting out of there, you saved Stephen’s life, you saved that woman’s life, and who knows how many other people, and uh… so we just wanted to celebrate you. That’s why you’re here today, because we wanted to thank you for what you’ve done. Even after this happened, instead of going to the hospital, you stayed to give police all the information they needed to piece these things together. And also, what else did you want to mention?]
(Jesus) I just wanted to mention all the people that assisted that night. Whether it was metro, the FBI, the community especially coming together to help everyone in need, the first responders, even the people that got called in to assist in the hospitals, and just everything is, put the pieces together, on how everyone came together to help that night in the darkest hour.
