As Robert Euresti tells it, he was at the Central Public Library late Sunday (about 8 p.m. or so) when he heard people panicking and screaming that someone was going to shoot people with a gun.
Euresti, a Vietnam vet, didn't panic and run toward the other side of the library. Instead, as he sat, the staff there began to tell patrons to move toward the outside.
"Apparently, some guy got angry at one of the staff members and started screaming that he was going to shoot everyone there," Euresti said after the incident.When the alarm about the supposed crazed gunman was shouted out in the library, it caused a near-panic as patrons sought a way out. In one case, Euresti said that a mother couldn't locate her child and was frantic in her search. It was only after the cops arrived that they found the child was standing right behind her but she hadn't seen herbeing she was so frightened.
Euresti said the Brownsville Police Dept. showed up quickly in force and that at closing time the library was surrounded by police cars.
It is unknown whether police arrested anyone over the incident or if there was a gun there to begin with.
"I was going to hit the floor if there had been one," Euresti said later. "If he passed by me, I could have come up behind him and that would have been the end of that."
This morning, the story at the library was that a mentally-impaired street person was having a panic attack and started threatening people that he was going to shoot up the place. That lit the panic fuse and calls to 911.
The gun scare at the library, coming as it did against the backdrop of the debate over gun control and background checks, only shows that the public is antsy on the subject and the slightest mention of a potential shootout like the one in Colorado, Connecticut and other places can set off a panic.
Now, given this apparently false alarm, do we need everyone at the library pulling out their piece to confront the nonexistent gunman?
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