Mr. Sorrels. Yes. I have called it out to myself, I have timed it, and I would say it was very, very close to 6 seconds.
Mr. Stern. It sounds like you can still hear the shots.
Mr. Sorrels. I will hear them forever—it is something I cannot wipe from my mind ever.
Mr. Stern. And you had little doubt that this was gunfire at the time?
Mr. Sorrels. After—as I said before, on the first shot, it was too sharp to be a backfire of an automobile. It just didn't sound like that at all. And then, of course, the other two coming as quickly as they did, and the confusion, there was no question, because I said, "Get out of here," meaning to move out, because certainly if there is anything going on like that, we don't want to even be stationary or near stationary—it is to get out of the vicinity as quickly as we can from the source of danger. I thought in my mind—my thought was that I should maybe get out to try to help apprehend who it was and so forth. There was no chance for that, because we were moving too fast.
Mr. Stern. Now, as to the apparent source of these reports, did you feel that all three reports came from the same direction?
Mr. Sorrels. Yes. Definitely so.
Mr. Stern. And that direction, as nearly as you can place it, was what?
Mr. Sorrels. To the right and back. That is about the only way I can express it.
And, as I said, the noise from the shots sounded like they may have come back up on the terrace there. And that is the reason I was looking around like that when the first shot. And I continued to look out until the other two shots. And then I turned on around and looked back to where the President's car was, and that is when I saw some movement there, and the car just seemed to leap forward.