Mr. Griffin. Did you hear the officers say anything to him?
Chief Batchelor. No.
Mr. Griffin. How long did you remain there?
Chief Batchelor. Just a few minutes. The ambulance came almost immediately. It was just—I walked out of there before the ambulance came and walked back. Someone shouted right after this happened, and there was a lot of confusion, and someone shouted, "Don't let anybody out."
There were a bunch of reporters that started running like they were frightened. I suppose they were running to telephones, but they tried to run up the Main Street ramp, and I remember very clearly the officer at the top of the ramp pulling his gun and said, "Get back down."
They turned around and walked back down, but most of them escaped through the corridor. Not out the ramp, but went out through the corridor.
Mr. Griffin. This is the corridor that leads from the record room to Commerce Street?
Chief Batchelor. Well, yes. They escaped out the corridor off the hallway that leads in front of the jail office into the Records Bureau, and then to Commerce Street.
Mr. Griffin. Did they escape out Commerce Street?
Chief Batchelor. I don't know where they went from there, whether they went upstairs to use the telephone, or out in the street. But there would have been nobody over there that heard the command not to let them out. This was kind of a spontaneous command.