There was a ladder leading from the fire escape that goes on up to the
top of the roof, and the deputy sheriff said, "I will get that for
you." And he started up it.
The captain said words to the effect that, "Make sure you don't
overlook him in there." So we went back inside and we didn't find him
in the balcony. We started downstairs and these would have been the
west stairs on the west side of the balcony. About the time I got to
the lower floor, I heard a shout similar to a "I've got him," which
came from the lower floor. And I ran through the west door from the
lobby into the downstairs part of the theatre proper.
Mr. BELIN. Let me stop you right there. When you say it is the west
door, as I remember this theatre, the entrance faces to the south, is
that correct?
Mr. HILL. Right.
Mr. BELIN. But then when you walked in, you walked in straight headed
north, and then you had to turn to the right?
Mr. HILL. So once you turned, I went up. That would have made me come
down the north, go up the south stairway to the balcony, and come down
the north stairway.
Mr. BELIN. All right. Now, you got down to the first floor. As you
go in to face the screen, the right side of the theatre when you are
facing the screen, you are facing roughly east?
Mr. HILL. Right side of the theatre would have been south.
Mr. BELIN. South as you face the screen. All right, now.
Mr. HILL. So I went through the north lower door.
Mr. BELIN. All right.
Mr. HILL. Came down the north stairway, and the commotion would have
been to my right or just south of the center of the theatre near the
back. Went over, and as I ran to them I saw some officers struggling
with a white male.
I reached out and grabbed the left arm of the suspect, and just before
I got to him I heard somebody yell, "Look out, he's got a gun."
I was on the same row with the suspect. The man on the row immediately
behind him was an officer named Hutson. McDonald was on the other side
of the suspect from me in the same aisle.
Two officers, C. T. Walker and Ray Hawkins, were in the row in front
of us holding the suspect from the front and forcing him backwards and
down into the seat. And to McDonald's right reaching over, and I don't
recall which row he was on, was an officer named Bob Carroll. And then
Paul Bentley and K. E. Lyons, who was Carroll's partner, they were both
in the special service bureau, also was there. They came up at various
intervals while all this was going on.
We finally got the man subdued to the point where we had control of him
and his legs pinned and his arms pinned. I said, "Let's handcuff him."
And being that I was working in plainclothes and working in personnel,
didn't have a pair of handcuffs, and I asked Hawkins if he had. And he
said, "Yes."