EDMOND, Okla. -- A postal worker said the mailman who killed 14 people in a shooting spree Wednesday tried to get into the vault where she and two co-workers were cowering and listening to the cries of his victims.
Patrick Sherrill, 44, upset about the prospect of losing his job, started firing his three pistols at 7 a.m., sending his fellow workers scrambling for cover. He killed 14 people before committing suicide.
'I heard someone holler, 'This is for real, get down,'' said Cheryl Sherrill, no relation to the killer.
She said she heard the supervisor yelling, ''No, Pat, no.''
'Everyone started scrambling, trying to get away,' she said.
Cheryl Sherrill said when she climbed into a vault to hide, two other employees already were there. All three escaped uninjured after police stormed the building and found Patrick Sherrill dead.
'I stayed there until I knew the police were there,' she said. 'He came back twice, trying to get in the vault. He started breathing very hard. I heard people yelling and moaning.'
Postal worker Orson Coris, 28, of Guthrie said he ran out the door when the shooting started.
He said Sherrill fired a shot at him as he fled.
'I have no idea where the shot went,' Coris said. 'It missed me.'
Another worker, Vince Furlong, 32, also of Guthrie, said he hit the floor when the shooting started.
'He just started shooting people,' said Furlong, who said bullets 'sprayed the room.'
'I saw one of my friends hit the ground and another one of my friends run by with a bullet hole in his side (and) blood coming out his back,' Furlong said.
Oklahoma District Attorney Bob Macy was stunned by the slayings, which he termed the worst in the state's history.
'You look at the carnage and you look at the dead people (and) as you walk through, you become so angry, you would like to walk through and shoot him,' Macy said.