Mr. RANKIN. November 22, 1963?
Mr. BRIAN. Yes, sir. The first thing that we done, I was, I personally
that day was, assigned at the Dallas Trade Mart where the President was
to speak, I was on the side of the speaker stand when he was to come
in, and they came in and got us and told us that he had been shot, and
the President of the United States had been shot, and that a man in the
Book Depository down there and told us to go down there and see if we
could get him out, and four of us detectives down there got in a car
and we went to the Book Depository and we arrived there a short time, I
don't know what time it was, a short time after the shooting occurred.
Mr. RANKIN. Who were the four you are describing now?
Mr. BRIAN. Lieutenant Revill, myself, a detective, O. J. Tarver, and a
detective, Roy W. Westphal.
Mr. RANKIN. What did you do there?
Mr. BRIAN. We searched the Book Depository for a couple of hours. We
spent about 2 hours, I would guess, approximately 2 hours down there
searching the Depository.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you find anything at that time?
Mr. BRIAN. No, sir. I was there on the floor when the man found shells
over in a corner when--where the assassin was hidden at. But other than
that, I wasn't present when anything was found.
Mr. RANKIN. Will you just describe that event when you saw those shells?
Mr. BRIAN. Well, a police sergeant, Jerry Hill, hollered, I was on the
opposite side of the sixth floor, hollered that he had, this is where
he shot from, and shells were laying there, and I walked from where I
was at over to the other corner of the building and looked, and that
is about the extent of my investigation there because they called the
crime laboratory and everybody else to get down there and they got an
officer to guard the place and not let nobody get around and we went on
searching the building.
Mr. RANKIN. What did you see, how many shells did you see?
Mr. BRIAN. I am going to guess.
Mr. RANKIN. We don't want you to guess. If you can tell us your
recollection, that is all.
Mr. BRIAN. Well, the first time I went over there, I believe I saw two,
but I am not sure, but I went back again later and there were three
shells there.
Mr. RANKIN. Now after that, did you leave the Depository Building?
Mr. BRIAN. Yes, sir; after we spent considerable time, we went from the
top floor down to the bottom floor, back up, going through it, and we
finally wound up on the second floor taking all the acoustic tile out
of the ceiling looking up to see if anybody was hidden up there, and I
believe that was the last thing we did in the building. By that time,
there were a number of people in the building.
Mr. RANKIN. You were making a complete search of each floor, were you?
Mr. BRIAN. Yes, sir; I was with, I mean there were a number of officers
there. I didn't do it by myself, there were a number of us there and we
were searching it.
Mr. RANKIN. Then you left the building?
Mr. BRIAN. Yes, sir.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you leave with some other officers?
Mr. BRIAN. Yes, sir; Lieutenant Revill, myself, and Tarver and Westphal
all went back to the car and left to go to city hall.
Mr. RANKIN. Then you got back to the city hall. What did you do?
Mr. BRIAN. We drove into the basement and parked.
Mr. RANKIN. What time of the day was that, can you tell us?
Mr. BRIAN. Probably around 2 o'clock or somewhere in that. I don't
really know to be truthful because I didn't pay any attention to the
time but it was around 2 o'clock, I would guess.
Mr. RANKIN. And the four of you were together at that time?
Mr. BRIAN. Yes, sir.
Mr. RANKIN. What happened at that point?