Caitriona Perry

You just would have seen all the agents rushing in.

And I guess you're in a room full of people who, for a living, rush towards danger, let's say.

So...

I'm sure some people were terrified because it's not what you expect when you're in your finery and you're, you know, starting into the first course of a dinner, expecting this night of celebration and parties ahead of you.

But there was just a sense of what's going on because you could, even after the agents came in, you could hear a couple of shots.

So it was unclear at that point, is there a gunman in the room?

Is the person outside of the room?

How many people are there?

Are they about to come in?

Is this one of these incidents where people are about to pop up from the table as well?

How orchestrated is this?

And, you know, there was a lot of law enforcement officials with very large guns around the room and then standing on the podium, sort of aiming throughout the room with their eyes peeled, I guess, lest someone appears.

So it was just that moment of confusions.

and a sense of just not knowing what's going on.

We weren't given an all clear as such, but it became obvious that there was no threat in the room at that point.

So people started coming out from under the tables.

Others did stay under there for a little bit longer.

And then the agents with the lighter guns, let's say, sort of snubbed down or went in a different direction.

So then another set of Secret Service personnel came through and said, OK, everyone can come out from taking cover, but you can't leave the room.

So then we were locked in the room for another period of time.