A relative of a friend was in Salt Lake City last week when the man began shooting in the Library. I thought you all might like to read a first hand version of what happened. -----Original Message----- From: Marie Large Date: April 15, 1999 10:37 PM Subject: We survived! Hello from Salt Lake, It has been a very trying day here for thousands of people. Thank heavens Ginny and I were in the right place at the right time. I had not felt well, all of a sudden and had the most urgent need to get out of the library. Like a magnet was pulling me out of there. It was 10:30 and I was going great guns on a roll of film. I shut down the machine, put on my jacket (it is cool here) and had to get outside. I went back to the hotel and got a paper I wanted and got back on the elevator to go back to the library. I was gone about 15 minutes. The elevator stopped and 3 people got on and they were shaking and could hardly talk. They said to stay on the elevator because a gunman was in the library shooting up the place and they think he got out and they don't know where he is. Ginny was in the library! Anyway, you probably heard the news. They evacuated the library and sent all the people to the hotel. There were people in the hotel lobby that were in bad shape, emotionally. We finally came up to our room and we watched the whole affair from our room. All the streets were blocked and I never saw so many police cars, swat teams, helicopters, etc. The city and the Mormon church should receive real applause for how they handled things. They let people into their Civic Hall across the street and then served everyone a free meal of pasta, potatoes, cookie and drinks. The hotel fed anyone around a sandwich supper. Unbelievable. Finally, about 6:00 they let us go back into the library to get our belongings. That was eerie to go back in there and we went in 15 at a time and three people were with a guard. Very well done. However, none could go to the first floor where all the trouble was and can't go in til maybe tomorrow. There are five floors and some people were trapped for hours under desks on the 2nd floor. I can't believe how well all this was organized and handled in such a short time. No cost to any of us. There were so many rumors all day and all will be sorted out. Ginny and I will stay thru next week as we had originally planned. I will stay in the room and finally get something done on my genealogy! Maybe I will write the whole story about all the families. We are just grateful to be here in one piece and alive. Marie Carol P. Martoccia 903 East Fifth Street Greenville, NC 27858 Pridgen Home Page: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/6297 Pridgen Archives: http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl