ATLANTA — Two weeks after the high-rise standoff at the Four Seasons in midtown Atlanta, 11Alive's Angelina Salcedo spoke with a woman who was inside the building, just four floors down from the shooting.
Police say 70-year-old retired ophthalmologist Jay Stevens Berger was shot by a SWAT sniper during the hours-long standoff on Oct. 29. He was released from the hospital and booked into the Fulton County Jail several days later.
He faces multiple charges, including aggravated assault, possession of a firearm or knife during the commission of or attempt to commit certain felonies, and willful obstruction of law enforcement.
Emilie Dayan Hill says she felt and heard the sound of the gunshots for hours.
"It's been two weeks now, and it still feels surreal," Hill said. "It's all a blur."
Hill said she watched things unfold with her colleagues from the window, watching police below.
"On the intercom, the building manager came on and said, we have a confidential situation. Stay in your office, and that is all they told us," she recalled. "I entered the building about five minutes before the lockdown happened."
Atlanta Police and SWAT teams swarmed after a desperate 911 call from the residential manager. Police say Berger was having a mental breakdown in his condo on the 33rd floor.
"The resident at the end of the hallway was pointing a gun at me screaming, 'Do not come this way,'" the caller said in the 911 call.
Court documents reveal Berger had flooded his unit, and water poured into the hallways near officers. While SWAT positioned themselves in the stairwell, Berger began shooting from the balcony.
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Hill watched and listened as furniture flew past their windows and gunshots rang out while she remained locked in a room with her coworkers for nearly four hours.
"We started hearing noises," she said. "It was really loud for us, everything was happening. And the first thing we thought was, 'Is the stairwell door locked?'"
Officers say Berger shot at them through the walls before firing again from the balcony. An explosive device allowed officers in the condo, and after getting hit by a SWAT counter sniper - Berger was finally taken into custody.
Hill said despite the scary incident, she knows mental health played a role in the incident.
"I feel a lot of compassion for that man," she stated. "For his reality to be so detached, to drive him to do something like that, and I don't know what the trigger was."
He was taken to Grady Hospital and moved to the jail last Sunday.