LOS ANGELES, June 5, 1968 (UPI) -- "Bobby's been shot, Bobby's been shot!" The cry ran through the crowd in the glittering Embassy Room of the Ambassador Hotel. Moments earlier hundreds had cheered as he declared a victory in the California Democratic presidential primary.
There was a mad dash to disarm the gunman. One who helped was Karl Eucker, a hotel employee.
"I heard six shots," he said. "They sounded like Chinese firecrackers.
"I whirled around and saw this man holding a gun in his left hand. He was standing on a three-foot-high steel kitchen table."
The man within seconds was in the hands of the crowd who began to beat on his head and tear at his hair. Many people were crying. Others banged their fists on the steel table, helpless with grief and anger.
Pat Murphy, a hotel security guard, said people began shouting: "Kill Him! Don't let him get away!"
Police charged into the crowd and formed a cordon around the gunman and led him away.
Mrs. Jean Smith, sister of the senator and wife of Stephen Smith, joined hands in another cordon seeking to keep the ballroom crowd back. She was ashen and stunned.
A pretty little "Kennedy girl" ran wildly about the room, tears streaming down her cheeks. She sobbed, "Oh he's been shot."
A wave of disbelief seemed to sweep over the crowd as Kennedy lay bleeding on the kitchen floor with wounds to his head and torso.
