“I was 50 feet away, I saw about three or four cruisers chasing a late model sedan. The sedan was stopped by the police, right at the base of the capitol. They surrounded it..pulled their guns…(and) opened the passenger side of the sedan. They were shouting at the driver,” he said.
Schwing then saw the car reverse and slam into a cruiser (which injured one police officer) and drive off. That’s when he heard gun shots, and the chaos began. “There were a lot of tourists there…It wasn't clear exactly what we needed to do other than get out of the area as quickly as possible… Initially the capitol police had us get down in place, (then) they huddled us off to the side.”
“Immediately things go through your mind about whether this was an isolated incident or something else,” Schwing said.