Mr. Specter. Did the individuals present on the triple overpass change at the various times when you looked in that direction?
Mr. Rowland. I don't think so. I don't think anyone went off who was up there or anyone else went on.
Mr. Specter. Will you now relate what occurred as the Presidential motorcade passed by you?
Mr. Rowland. Well, the car turned the corner at Houston and Main. Everyone was rushing, pressing the cars, trying to get closer. There were quite a few people, you know, trying to run alongside of the car such as this; officers were trying to prevent this. The car turned—we had more or less a long period of time that they were within our sight considering some of the other people.
The car went down Houston, again turned on Elm, and it was proceeding down Elm when we heard the first of the reports. This I passed off as a backfire, so did practically everyone in the area because gobs of people, when I say gobs, I mean almost everyone in the vicinity, started laughing that couldn't see the motorcade. The motorcade was obscured from our vision by the crowd.
Mr. Specter. What would the occasion be for laughter on the sound of a backfire?
Mr. Rowland. I don't know. A lot of people laughed. I don't know. But a lot of people laughed, chuckled, such as this. Then approximately 5 seconds, 5 or 6 seconds, the second report was heard, 2 seconds the third report. After the second report, I knew what it was, and——
Mr. Specter. What was it?
Mr. Rowland. I knew that it was a gun firing.
Mr. Specter. How did you know that?