Patricia Ward, a logistics management specialist with the Navy, was in the first-floor cafeteria at the Naval Sea Systems Command Headquarters building when the shooting started this morning.

She says she heard two separate groups of shots—about three shots the first time and four the second—before the buildings alarm was pulled.

“I panicked and ran,” she says.

Ward says a security guard in the building told her and her colleagues to run as far as they could. She got about eight blocks before she stopped. Ward says there are no metal detectors in the building, but personnel can only gain entry through a magnetic photo ID access card.

Photo of police cars by Perry Stein