Witnesses to the shooting at Washington D.C.'s Holocaust Museum related to reporters the fear and confusion inside the building.
Defense Secretary William Cohen and his wife were among them. The couple were about forty feet away from the shooting, they said. His wife, Janet Langhart, got teary-eyed speaking of the security guard's death. "I'm just really sorry for his family," she said.
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"We hit the floor," one museum visitor who was inside the building, near the entrance, told Fox News. They said the museum staff told everyone to run, and they ran out the back door. "I was concerned for my wife and grandkids," he said, saying that his family huddled on the ground because they were afraid to move.
The same witness said he and his family were close enough to be shot by the gunman. "We didn't know if he was gonna ... if we were next."
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"Nobody really knew what to do," said a person who was in the children's stories section of the museum. He said he heard the shots but didn't know for sure that something was wrong until three kids ran into the room with a "horrified, scared look."
An Israeli citizen living said the reportedly anti-Semitic attack was "scary" and "disturbing."