Mr. Griffin. Now, you have drawn a line on either side, straight line on either side of the hallway that leads out between the swinging doors and the Main Street and Commerce Street ramp.
Mr. Beaty. That's right.
Mr. Griffin. Did he tell officers to stand any place except along those two walls where you have drawn the line?
Mr. Beaty. No, sir. He instructed us to, when they brought Oswald out of the smaller swinging door in the outside hall, to make a path for him and be sure that nobody got to him or slowed him down. In other words, indicating that—I don't remember whether he said to get to him or not. He just said keep the people back so we can get him through, something like that.
Mr. Griffin. Let me ask you this: What was your understanding that you people were to do, if anything, when Oswald got abreast of you?
Mr. Beaty. To keep the people back. Of course, over here where I was, there was nobody behind me.
Mr. Griffin. Would you place on the chart where it was you were stationed? Put an "X" there.
Mr. Beaty. [Complies.]
Mr. Griffin. Let me ask you again. As Oswald moved out of the jail office and approached the car that he was to get in, did you have any understanding as to any action that you were supposed to take?
Mr. Beaty. Like I said before, of course, there was nobody at that time, we thought, but the press and police officers down there, and at that time we were, television cameras were set up across the ramp behind a railing about 4 foot tall.