County members of a youth Latino group were inside the Hart Center Office Building in Washington, D.C. on Thursday when police killed a woman nearby after a chase from the White House to the Capitol.
Local members from the League of United Latin American Citizens this week have been in the nation’s capital for a youth leadership seminar. Most of them – including five youths from San Benito County – were in the Hart Center Office Building for a luncheon when the Thursday afternoon incident occurred, said Mickie Solorio Luna, vice president of LULAC’s far west region and a Hollister resident.
At the time, Luna and some others had left the luncheon early to head back to the hotel and were in a tunnel walkway going from one building to the other.
“It was kind of scary,” Luna said. “We were rushed to the side and stood against the wall.”
Luna was particularly startled when she saw one of the Capitol police officers with a rifle.
“I thought, ‘Oh my gosh – what’s going to happen?’”
They immediately went to reconnect with the students, who ran up to them when they saw them, Luna said.
Those youth leaders and others return to Hollister this weekend, she said.
Look back for more on this story next week.
