Tower

---

[bright music]

[engine turns over]

[radio adjusting]

- This is Neal Spelce

in Red Rover

on the University

of Texas campus.

This is a warning

to the citizens of Austin.

Stay away

from the University area.

Stay away from

the University area.

There is a sniper

on the University Tower

firing at will.

[gunshot]

[soft piano music]

[gunshot]

- Bah da bah da da da

Bah da bah da da da

Bah da bah da da da

- Monday, Monday

- Bah da bah da da da

- So good to me

- Bah da bah da da da

- We had taken

an anthropology test

so we got out of class

early that day.

My boyfriend Tom and I

were drinking coffee

at the Chuck Wagon

at the Student Union.

[people chattering]

- Hey, Claire.

[indistinct chattering]

- We knew that

if we didn't go quickly

and put another nickel

in the meter,

we'd get a pink slip

and we already had two.

I think if you had three,

you couldn't park on campus

any longer.

- Sometimes it just

turns out that way

- Oh, Monday mornin'

You gave me no warnin'

- We were kind of disagreeing.

Well, he was worried

that I wasn't

getting enough nutrition

for the baby.

And I said, "Well, Tom, I had

orange juice this morning."

[gunshot]

I just felt this...

This huge jolt.

[gunshot]

Like I'd stepped on

a live wire.

Like I'd been electrocuted.

Tom said--

- Baby!

- And reached out for me,

and then...

[gunshot]

[gunshot]

[heavy breathing]

- What're you doing?

Get up from there.

- Please call a doctor!

- Get your books.

[gunshot]

- Please! Help us!

[somber music]

- Every other day

- Every other day

Every other day

Every other day

of the week is fine

- I had a paper route around

the University of Texas.

It was the biggest route

in Austin

and everybody wanted

to get that route.

I had my cousin with me.

Sometimes he would help me

with my paper route.

I was not supposed

to work that day.

The regular guy was supposed

to get back from vacation

that day.

At about 10:
00 that morning,

the paper called me

and asked if I could

do that route one more day.

- But Monday mornin'

Monday mornin'

couldn't guarantee

That--

[radio adjusting]

[slow country music]

- I was either

filling out reports or...

just taking it easy

a little bit.

Listening to my radio.

On the Country Western.

[up-tempo country music]

I do remember one song

that played that morning

was "Waterloo."

- Waterloo

- I kinda felt

that after that day...

Well, here's your Waterloo

coming up for somebody.

- Every puppy has its day

Everybody has to pay

Everybody has to meet

his Waterloo

- It was hot that day.

It must've been

100 degrees.

[faint popping]

I started making my deliveries

and I heard some sounds,

like popping.

It sounded like firecrackers.

[pop]

[pop]

[gunshot]

[gunshot]

[KTBC Radio jingle plays]

- Austin, Texas

- August 1st started out

as a typical summer day

in Austin, Texas.

And it was a day

that you sat around, frankly.

And we were trying

to decide...

Okay, what do we

cover today?

[spotty police dispatch]

- Main Tower...

University of Texas...

- Then the radio

called my number

and I was trying to make out

what they were saying,

but it just wasn't

coming through.

[static]

- I...I can't...I can't

make out what you're saying.

You keep cutting out now.

- He said somethin' 'bout...

- 44...108...

- Finally I decipher

University of Texas.

So...I just said I was headed

toward the University of Texas.

- We had police radios,

of course,

throughout the newsroom.

- And then, within seconds...

- There's a guy on top

of the Tower and he's shooting.

Shooting at people,

and they're dispatching officers

as best they can

to the scene.

- Police operator.

- This is Michael Hall,

there's just been a gunshot

right in front of the Tower.

[gunshot]

- I heard what I thought

were two firecrackers.

And I thought,

"Somebody still has

firecrackers

from the Fourth of July."

- Police operator.

- Hi, this is the Department

of English at the University.

Someone has been shot,

we believe, outside.

Someone is shooting

from the Tower.

- I was in Shakespeare class

when it started.

And we all ran to the windows

of the English Building.

[gunshot]

We just stood there peering out

over each other's shoulders.

[gunshot]

- I realized that there was

someone shooting from the Tower

and that if I could see him,

he could see me.

- There are snipers.

Somebody has shot

four different people.

[gunshot]

- Yes, ma'am,

it's been reported.

She says four people

have been shot up there so far.

- As I ran behind the car,

the shot from the rifle

sounded like

it was almost in my ear,

and I could hear

the bullet ricochet.

When I asked

if anyone had been hit,

someone said five people,

including a little boy

on a bicycle.

[gunshot]

- When I got shot,

we both fell down.

[gunshot]

[ears ringing]

- You're gonna be okay.

You're gonna be okay, honey.

He's gonna be okay.

[faint gunshot]

- My God, what happened?

- He's been shot.

[gunshot]

- I had been working at

the University of Texas Co-Op

since 8:
30 A.M.

I noticed across the street

a small group.

- What's going on?

- Looks like a fight.

[traffic bustling]

I got across the street

and found

the boy had been shot.

All right, let's stop

this bleeding here.

And so I tried to stop

the flow of blood.

You okay?

You're gonna be all right.

[gunshots]

I heard reports

that I recognized as gunshots

but I could not tell

where they were coming from.

[gunshot]

- I didn't know

what had happened at all.

[gunshot]

I thought that I felt

the baby kind of...

fall to the side?

So I thought he probably

wasn't alive any longer.

You know, by the eighth month

your baby's moving a lot

and...after I got shot,

the baby never moved.

"Tom?" I called out to him.

Tom...

But Tom never said

another word.

[cries]

[country Western music]

- You know, I-I thought

it was already over with.

Lawman gets there,

and by then

it's usually over with,

you know?

- Texas

You know that we love you

And we praise you

We want you to know

[gunshot]

[radio clicks off]

- Then I-I finally realized

something was happening

that I ain't ever seen before.

[loud gunshot]

I just thought--There's

a thousand windows up there,

and a thousand Black Panthers.

A revolution.

[gunshot]

And the hair just stood up

on the back of my neck.

[gunshot]

And I must say I was scared.

It was bigger than me.

[Tower bell ringing]

- There's a guy on top

of the Tower and he's shooting.

Shooting at people.

- I told the disc jockey

on duty. I says,

"Give us some news intro music

and throw it to me."

[news intro music]

And I'll take it

from there.

I began my broadcast as I was

driving up to the Tower.

"This is Neal Spelce

in Red Rover

"on the University of Texas

campus.

"This is a warning

to the citizens of Austin.

"Stay away from

the University area.

"There is a sniper

on the University Tower

"firing at will."

[gunshot]

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