A Sniper in the Tower: The Charles Whitman Murders

13: Independent Actions

13 Independent Actions 197 I In a short time, nearly all of Austin's police force had reported for duty. Some of the officers went directly to the campus. Others, including Officers George Shepard, Phillip Conner, Harold Moe, and Milton Shoquist, went to police headquarters first. There, the team was given tear gas and a walkie talkie and told to report to the campus area. Since the officers were in possession of communications equipment and tear gas, when they reached 21 st and Speedway, Sergeant Marvin Ferrell, who had been directing officers to their assign- mJ~-------- Independent Actions ments, sent them to the ·UT Security Office a few blocks north of the Tower at 24th and San Jacinto. There Houston McCoy asked them if they had a11Y additional shotguns. They did not. He also asked if they had any directions or a plan. They did not. At the office, UT's Security Chief Allen R. Hamilton directed one of his men, Sgt. A.Y. Barr, to lead the APD team to the Tower. From the university police station, the band of officers walk.ed through the campus to an area directly east of the Tower. From that position there appeared to be only one way to get to the Tower-a dash over an open area. McCoy wondered aloud if there was a safer way for six men to get to the Main Building. William Wilcox, a university employee, knew of a maze of tunnels connecting the buildings to allow for relative ease when maintaining the campus infrastructure-telephone, power lines and water lines. Through the tunnel connecting the Computation Center to the Main Building, Wilcox guided McCoy's team. I Inside the Tower, APD officer Jerry Da)T, DrS intelligence officer \tV. A. Cowan, and the civilian Allen Crum had already taken the elevator and stairs to the twenty-seventh floor. As Day, Cowan and Crum climbed towards the top, Ramiro Martinez unsuccessfully attempted to establish contact with APD headquarters before deciding to join Day and the others on the twenty-seventh floor. He walked toward the elevator, but before he could enter it a young man holding a clipboard asked him for his name. "Why do you want my name?" Ramiro asked, The man said he really did not know, but he felt the need to do something. In any case, Ramiro gave the man his name and entered the elevator, alone. The doors closed and he heard familiar elevator sounds and felt the well-known push on his heels and the soles of his feet as the elevator began to defy gravity Like a typical occupant, he stood quietly and watched the illuminated numbers change, going up-and up. Ramiro's parents would have been proud. He remembered the prayers he had been taught at home and at Catechism on Sunday mornings in Rotan, Texas. Raising his right hand to his forehead to begin the Sign of the Cross, he closed his eyes, pledged his life to God and asked for forgiveness of his sins: Oh my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended thee, and I detest all my sins because of thy just punishments , but most of all because they offend thee, my God, who art all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of thy grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasions of sin. Amen. The elevator doors opened onto the twenty-seventh floor. Ramiro Martinez stepped out and joined Crum, Da)T, and Cowan, the latter two struggling to establish communications with UT Security Chief Allen Hamilton in order to request more shotguns. They also wanted the firing from the ground to stop. Meanwhile, the first policeman to enter the tower, Patrolman Bob Da)T, still waited on the third floor for someone to bring a rifle; he had been instructed to hold his position." On the twenty-seventh floor, a librarian named Jules Emig and his wife Patricia had been closer to the shooting than anyone in the Tower, except for the Gabours and Lamports. Emig had heard three shots and seen M. J. Gabour and William Lamport running through the twenty-seventh floor crying for help. Shortly afterwards, they could hear Mike and Mary Gabour moaning. James Zinn ran in and asked them to call for help. After doing so, they locked themselves in a room with Gabour...