Citibank employees recount shooting

We have also been hearing from those who were in and around the area where the shooting happened yesterday. Yeah, in fact, one woman who saw the shooter emerge from his car with that gun described what followed. I literally saw him with a rifle, a black rifle in his hand, and my heart just sank. I just immediately started screaming, there's a shooter, run. And I literally ran to my seat and I got my bag, which had my keys. Mind you, everything was on my table because or my desk. I'm sorry. I took everything out of my bag, you know, during the day to use the things that I have my water bottle, my lunchbox, my notebook, my headset. All my things were on my on my desk. I grabbed my bag and I. Ran I put it on and I'm at the same time. I'm like telling people run. There's a shooter run There's a shooter and I'm running down the hallway to the where the elevators are too. I noticed a lot of people weren't Running, moving, and in a lot of those situations, it's a very big place. There's a lot of people. You can hear something over here and not hear it over here because there's so many things. I didn't even hear the car crash. I didn't hear people screaming. One of my coworkers said she heard someone screaming and stood up and then heard me say that there was a shooter. Then that's what made her run. But she heard screaming and was like, wait, what's that noise? I didn't hear that. And she was like a little few rows down from me. So it's not like it's a big place. You can't hear absolutely everything and see everything. Let's bring in Fox 13's Aaron Mesmer live at the Citibank Center in Brandon. Many employees returned today to pick up what they left behind. Yesterday, Aaron, I was struck by what she said there. You could tell that she almost had a little bit of frustration. She was able to see this gunman yesterday. A lot of other people didn't, so she's kind of trying to tell them to hurry along, hurry along, hurry along, and some of them are a little bit more slow to go, but thankfully she saw him, and she was probably able to move some people along yesterday. Yeah, and those are the kinds of stories, Mark, that we're hearing. It's an incredibly traumatic experience for folks who have experienced that. I mean, we can only try to imagine being in that situation and how we would handle it and the fear and the terror that they all must have had as they were trying to escape. But they didn't really know what was going on in some cases, and some of them had a closer connection and closer experience of what was happening there. But, yeah, that was similar experiences to what we were hearing. Out here and these folks have only just begun to process that kind of trauma and the grief that goes along with getting out of the way and surviving and also, of course, losing a co-worker who was identified as Leanne Selman. Meanwhile, as for the 3200 employees who were here at work, they returned for a short period of time today and throughout the day we saw a steady stream of people coming back to pick up their belongings. Hillsborough Sheriff Chad Chronister said many of them left behind things like bags, glasses. Even their shoes, which he says came off as people ran for safety. We talked with another employee this morning who's home today. He was on the third floor as the chaos unfolded. He initially says he thought it was a fire drill, but then he heard screams and people shouting that somebody had a gun. He says he and several co-workers locked themselves in what he called a quiet room until the situation was over. A lot of it was just a mega hysteria that you're just trying to, at least I was and a couple of the other people were, just trying to keep calm because the worst thing that you can do in that scenario is freak out and make a terrible decision that leads to you losing your life. I just want to, again, thank the security guard and my coworker that really stuck on their feet or was thinking on their feet. The bravery of the security that secured the scene and took out the suspect before the police could even get there. So that employee asked to remain anonymous, but he says he was in the military and he felt the safest thing to do was to hide in that quiet room and not try to escape at that point. He says there were thousands of people scrambling to get out to safety and he was worried that some people could get trampled in the process. But again, as you heard him just say, he feels fortunate that he did get to safety, that so many other people also got to safety. He of course feels terrible about the one co-worker who lost her life, but he is incredibly thankful. For that security guard who put his life on the line to save potentially so many other people, Mark. Yeah, it's so sad to hear Sheriff Chronister say that Ms. Selman, poor thing, she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, unfortunately. Thinking about all her loved ones. How about these other workers? I know they're obviously carrying a tremendous amount of trauma. What's Citibank telling their staff regarding any remote work or counseling and when this facility here may reopen? Well, the Citibank spokesperson has said that the company is going to be there for anybody who needs the assistance and, of course, I'm sure the therapy that they may need to get through this kind of situation. And they say they're not going to force anybody to come back to work before they are ready. The building itself is closed at least through the end of the week. And, again, nobody is going to be forced to return until they're ready, until they have processed what I'm sure is a lot of trauma and grief. No doubt about that. Aaron Messmer live for us tonight. Aaron, thanks.