Downtown Dallas Residents Ducked For Cover, Recorded Video Of Federal Courthouse Shooting
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - People who live in the 10-story SoCo Urban Lofts had a birds-eye view of the suspect who opened fire at the Earle Cabell Federal Building Monday morning in downtown Dallas.
Some told CBS 11, they also had flashbacks to another time when gunshots rang out in downtown... July 7, 2016, when five police officers were shot and killed by a sniper following a peaceful protest against recent cases of use of deadly force by police around the country.
"In my building, I got about four feet of brick, so I was kind of laying down kind of peeking over with my phone barely up," said Tim Brown.
Brown was hiding while recording from his 8th floor window when the gunman fired into the federal courthouse before running into the parking lot where he was shot and killed by officers.
"ATF came to my door," said Brown. "I talked to them. I showed them my footage. I don't know what he was thinking, but he definitely had this planned out, had a vest on it looked like camo pants on, boots on and he had his face covered up, too."
Another loft resident, George Rebecca, was able to record authorities performing CPR on the gunman and capture an image of what was used to detonate any explosives that might have been in his car.
"It was all over really quick," said Rebecca.
Rebecca and other loft residents were evacuated from their homes.
They say the rapid gunfire reminded them of the sniper attack on police they witnessed three years ago.
"I just can't believe this is happening in America and not in my backyard again," said Wiesia McCown.
"There's a bullet right in front of our building that we pointed out to police," said Joel Bowers, another SoCo Urban Lofts resident. "It's unusual. I just got back from Tel Aviv over the weekend and Amman, Jordan. No trouble. I get back home and then there's a shooting in front of my building."
The loft residents were allowed to go back home by early afternoon.
They are as curious about why this happened as anyone and some said it has made them think twice about living next to a federal courthouse.
"Gets me a little nervous, but I look at it two ways, said McCown. "I live next to the federal building so it's really safe or really dangerous. I can't run away from it. If it's my time, it's my time."