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pleasant one. On May 5, 1992 I worked in the Criminal/Traffic Department of the St. Louis County Courthouse in Clayton. The day started like any other day there. I had gone down the hall to look for a file when I heard a loud bang. They were doing some construction in the building so I thought that was where the noise came from. That bang was followed by another and another and another. It was then I realized it was gunshots I was hearing, coming from the courtroom across the hall. People began to scramble. Some jumped over counters to hide, others hid under desks, in bathrooms, or where ever they could shield themselves. No one knew for sure what was happening. I quickly hid under a counter and pulled a chair in front of me to hide. I looked to my right and saw another frightened woman who had been at the courthouse to pay a ticket. It seemed like forever that we huddled under the counter. I kept expecting to see a terrorist come flying in the office with an assault rifle. When the shooting finally stopped we began to slowly get up and as I looked out our office window to the courtyard I saw police officers hidden behind concrete barriers with guns drawn and pointed towards us. My thoughts then went to my coworkers down the hall. I carefully looked out the door and when I saw it was clear I began to make my way down the hall to my office. As I entered the room, it appeared empty and I began to call out names. I looked across the office and saw my manager's door closed. I tried to open the door, but it was locked. Again I called out names and announced it was me. The door slowly opened to reveal a room full of frightened women. My coworkers were safe, but it was mass confusion. After what seemed like an eternity, a police officer finally came and told us they were evacuating our floor and we were to follow him. As we were escorted towards the escalator I observed numerous bullet holes in the walls and one bullet that had lodged in our office door. As I rounded the corner to step on the escalator, there lay Kenneth Baumruk, a pool of blood around his head. He had been in court for his divorce hearing. The first loud bang I had heard was him shooting his wife, killing her. He also shot her attorney, his attorney, a bailiff, and continued to fire his gun as he methodically made his way around the back corridor of the second floor. He was finally shot by a police officer that was in traffic court waiting to testify in a trial. That experience changed my life and it is a day I will never forget.