Postal worker inside the room when shots were fired talks with KCCI
By Marcus McIntosh
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DES MOINES, Iowa (KCCI) — Dan Ramirez said he initially thought something had fallen when a thunderously loud noise startled him and his co-workers.
They froze, not yet realizing they were hearing gunfire.
“I heard a crack, and then I heard a crack, crack,” said Ramirez.
After the second crack, he said, nearly everyone in the room began running away from the noise.
“In my head, I’m like, just get away from the noise,” he said. “I still don’t know what is going on. If I get away from the noise, I will be safe.”
He recalled no one screaming, only the eerie sound of feet running.
Ramirez said he was most afraid as he ran through an empty room and heard the shots moving. “I’m a big guy,” he said. “I’m not the fastest person.”
He made his way downstairs and outside to the employee parking lot, where he saw co-workers hiding behind cars.
Ramirez said he opened the back gates for first responders and praised the police response.
People from the second floor were later taken by bus to another facility for questioning, he said.
Ramirez said he did not know why Jennifer Pledger, a woman he had worked with since 2015, allegedly opened fire.
“I didn’t even see her come in that day,” he said. “She keeps to herself. … She works hard, at least whenever I’ve seen her.”
Ramirez says he was sick and has not been back to work since the shooting.
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