Mr. SAWYER. That is the Sheriff's Office.
Mr. BELIN. "To move all men available out of my Department back into
the railroad yard----"
And that you feel is Decker talking because of the reference to Station
5?
Mr. SAWYER. Also, my memory serves that it was his voice that made that.
Mr. BELIN. All right, then, at 12:31, is a notation there that quotes,
"It looks like the President has been hit."
Then there doesn't appear to be anything pertaining to where the shots
might have come from until we see at 12:34, there is a call from
officer, it says No. 136, that states, "A passer-by states the shots
came from Texas School Book Depository Building.
This is the first reference in the log about the Texas School Book
Depository, is that correct?
Mr. SAWYER. That's correct.
Mr. BELIN. Do you feel that you heard in your car some reference to the
Texas School Book Depository building?
Mr. SAWYER. I do.
Mr. BELIN. Would it be fair for me to assume then that you had not at
least completely left your car by 12:34 p.m?
Mr. SAWYER. Correct.
Mr. BELIN. Then when you got to the Texas School Book Depository, well,
you got out of the car and talked to some people or to some officers?
Mr. SAWYER. Officers.
Mr. BELIN. And then what did the officers tell you?
Mr. SAWYER. That their information was that the shots had come from the
fifth floor of the Texas School Book Depository.
Mr. BELIN. Did any officers give you any other information about the
source of the shots other than the fact that it came from the Texas
School Book Depository, at that particular time?
Mr. SAWYER. I can't say whether it was officers or who, but there was a
reference also made to the overpass.
Mr. BELIN. All right, in any event--pardon me, do you have anything
else to add?
Mr. SAWYER. Also, there was a broadcast here in the transcript about
the railroad yard.
Mr. BELIN. All right.
Mr. SAWYER. And this could be part of what I was thinking about, or
what I had heard, was this broadcast on the radio about the railroad
yard.
Mr. BELIN. Then what did you do? You went inside the building, is that
correct?
Mr. SAWYER. We immediately went inside the building. I took--I believe
Sgt. Harkness may have gone with me. I am not positive of that.
Mr. BELIN. Was the elevator on the first floor when you got there, or
did you have to wait for it to come down?
Mr. SAWYER. Best of my recollection, it was there.
Mr. BELIN. You got to the elevator, went up, looked around back there.
How long did you spend up there at the top floor that the elevator took
you to?
Mr. SAWYER. Just took a quick look around and made sure there was
nobody hiding on that floor. I doubt if it took over a minute at the
most.
Mr. BELIN. To go up and look around and come down?
Mr. SAWYER. To look around on the floor. How long it took to go up, it
couldn't have been over 3 minutes at the most from the time we left,
got up and back down.
Mr. BELIN. Then that would put it around no sooner than 12:37, if you
heard the call at 12:34?
Mr. SAWYER. Yes, sir.
Mr. BELIN. Then you got down and what did you do?
Mr. SAWYER. I asked the Sergeant to doublecheck the security around the
building, and then I took two patrolmen and stationed them at the front
door and told them, with instructions not to let anybody in or out.
Mr. BELIN. Now up to the time you did this, had anyone else sealed off
the building, that you know of?
Mr. SAWYER. When I arrived, the sergeant told me he had the building
sealed off. There were officers all around the building.
To the best of my recollection, there was no officer actually stationed
on the front door, at the front door. There was some on the sidewalk
in front of the front door, and also, as far as I know, had no
instructions been issued to anyone to let anybody in or out.
Mr. BELIN. So yours would have been the first instructions to stop
traffic from coming in and out of the front door, am I correct in that?
Mr. SAWYER. That's right.
Mr. BELIN. All right, anybody that would have been seen leaving the
building would have been stopped and interrogated by the officers that
were there?
Even before you instructed them?
Mr. SAWYER. Yes, because they were looking for something or anything,
and I know that anybody coming out of the back doors, from what the
sergeant told me, they would have stopped them, too.
Mr. BELIN. What happened at the front door now. There were people
standing out on the area of the steps, were there not?
Mr. SAWYER. No. There were some people around, yes.
Mr. BELIN. Do you know whether or not any of those would have been
stopped?
Mr. SAWYER. For sure, no; I don't.
Mr. BELIN. Now after you got down and you issued these orders, then
what did you do?
Mr. SAWYER. I set up a command post in front. The various officers were
bringing up different witnesses who had seen various things, and I saw
that this was quite an involved situation. It was so many of these
people that had information, that I knew I didn't have time to take
this information down, and by this time several deputy sheriffs were
standing there, and one of them, I think he was a supervisor, I had his
name at one time, I can't think of it now, was there, and he offered
the use of an interrogation room of Sheriff Decker's office, I think he
said, for interrogating these people.
Mr. BELIN. That is located down the street a little bit there?
Mr. SAWYER. Well, it is catty-corner across the street.
Mr. BELIN. All right.
Mr. SAWYER. It is southeast across the street from the Texas School
Book Depository, at least from the corner, and so we set up a group of
officers and deputy sheriffs who were to take charge of the witnesses
and take them over to see that affidavits were taken from them.
They were more or less an escort service so the witness wouldn't get
away.
And then as our detectives began to show up, I sent them over to the
Sheriff's Office to assist in taking these depositions or affidavits.
Mr. BELIN. How many witnesses were there around there during this
period of time that you talked to?
Mr. SAWYER. Well, during the entire period of time that I was there, I
would venture to say between 25 to 50 different people had come up with
information of one kind or another.
Mr. BELIN. Now, on this radio log, Sawyer's Deposition Exhibit A, do
you notice your number there for any calls at all that might have come
in? What number did you use?
Mr. SAWYER. I used No. 9. That is my regular call No. 9.
Mr. BELIN. I notice here a No. 9, the first time that appears to come
in here is at 12:40 p.m.; is that right?
Mr. SAWYER. That is the first one after 12:40, sir.
Mr. BELIN. The first one after 12:30?
Mr. SAWYER. The first one after 12:30, yes, that is true.
Mr. BELIN. Then at 12:40, there is a bunch of calls at 12:40, with the
next call number at 12:43, so you assume sometime 12:40 and 12:43 you,
as No. 9, called in, is that correct?
Mr. SAWYER. That's correct.
Mr. BELIN. Would you read what it says that you said there?
Mr. SAWYER. "We need more manpower down here at the Texas Book
Depository; there should be a bunch on Main if somebody can pick them
up and bring them down here."
Mr. BELIN. Was that said before or after you came down from the
elevator?
Mr. SAWYER. That was after.
Mr. BELIN. Was that before or after you told the men there to guard the
front door and not let anyone in or out?
Mr. SAWYER. That was after.
Mr. BELIN. Now the next time that No. 9 appears is at what time?
Mr. SAWYER. Immediately after 12:43 and before 12:45.
Mr. BELIN. What did you say then?
Mr. SAWYER. "The wanted person in this is a slender white male about
30, 5 feet 10, 165, carrying what looks to be a 30-30 or some type of
Winchester."
Mr. BELIN. Then the statement is made from the home office, "It was a
rifle?"