Thread by @kevminlaw

Here is my experience inside #Nationals Park tonight. I share it knowing that it does not compare to what the victims of this #shooting or any other experience.

You learn who your husband really is when you have to run for your life.

We were up over by Section 319 finishing our @shakeshack when after the third out there were 6-8 pops. I noticed them and thought, “That’s a strange new sound effect and a strange time to play it.”

Then we saw people on the first level looking and crouching, followed by people

running to the exit, and noticed that all the players were not just off the field, but had gone back into the clubhouses…at that point I knew that what I had heard was not a sound effect, but gunshots.

We decided not to run but to stay where we were as we heard people say it

was outside (the Nats had said nothing at this point) and we were on the opposite end of the Park from where it happened.

It was all calm until people started running around the corner from the ramp that comes up the lower level yelling “he’s got a gun!” What was probably the

the sound of shoes slapping against the painted concrete floor sounded enough like gunshots that we had to run.

I looked at John and said, “We are not going to get separated. Whatever happens to us happens to both of us.” He said, “Right.” We grabbed hands and ran toward the

other end of the stadium. People were ducking into bathrooms, behind kiosks, wherever they could hide.

We saw a people running into the kitchen area of a Nats Dogs stand and were heading toward that door when all the sudden John stopped. I looked at him with crazy eyes and he

said, “she’s in a wheelchair!”

There was a woman in a large motorized chair that was not moving anywhere near as fast as people were running. He looked at me and looked at him and then he asked her if it was ok to push her. She said yes and we aimed her toward the Nats Dog

door, but her chair could not turn that fast and people would not stop to let her in.

There was a second door a few feet from the first. I tried it and it opened a few inches. They were barricading it from the inside, but I made eye contact with someone inside and screamed

“wheelchair!” A woman in a blue shirt, signifying she was a manager, looked out the from behind the door. I stepped to the side so she could see and she immediately yelled, “Wheelchair!” and started moving stuff away from the door to let us in. We finally got the chair inside,

followed by another one behind her, and they closed the metal gates behind us.

We were probably only back there about three or four minutes, but long enough to make a short video to say that I loved everyone and to show that we were together. It was hot, there were probably 25-

30 people in there, but people were quiet and grateful for the employees who had taken charge.

Then word came that the shooting was outside of the stadium. We filed out onto the 3rd level concourse where the Jumbotron told us to stay inside the Park. We started toward the exit

anyway and a few minutes later they announced that we could leave through the centerfield and right field gates.

As we walked to the Metro, I thanked my husband for being the type of person who would stop and help a person in a wheelchair as so many others went rushing by.