Surveillance video released Tuesday shows the panic at a neighboring business as two accused terrorists opened fire inside a social services building in San Bernardino last week.
The business is located about a hundred yards south of the building where the massacre happened, and the owner said he grabbed his gun, but it was too late to help.
On video from the front office security camera at TGS Plastic, a man in a blue shirt can be seen walking inside. What isn’t audible are his screams for help.
"Just screaming help, help, shooting, help, help,” recounted Lewis Allen. “I come out of my office, I walk over here.”
Allen wasn’t sure what was happening at that point, but in the surveillance video he is seen ducking down and moving backward.
"I could hear gunshots coming off from my left. I had him come over here. Get to the phone, call 911,” Allen said.
Lewis said the unidentified man had just run a hundred yards from the Inland Regional Center, where two shooters had opened fire on a conference room full of people.
Local
Get Los Angeles's latest local news on crime, entertainment, weather, schools, COVID, cost of living and more. Here's your go-to source for today's LA news.
"I hear him say ‘That's them, that's them!’ I look and I see a security guard go by. I tried to call the security guard, nothing happens."
Lewis saw two people dressed in dark clothing, later identified as Syed Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik, walking through the parking lot.
"They come out of the door right there. They get in their car and just drive straight through the parking lot. Nice and casual, like they owned the damned place and then they turned left and off they go."
Lewis ran into a back office and grabbed his own gun that he keeps on site to protect his workers.
"I know my next door neighbor had his out, too. I walked in and told my guys ‘Hey, guess what? There was a shooting.’ We’re thinking that it was just a person pissed off at his co-workers, but we found out it's something different."
It’s being investigated as an act of terrorism that injured more than 20 innocent Americans and took the lives of 14 more.
Lewis wished he could have understood what was happening sooner so maybe he could have done something to stop the carnage.
"I was sick to my stomach,” he said. "It's sickening. And for what? There are no words to describe it, you know?”
