A man fires four people near the Pennsylvania court and is killed by police

"It was pandemonium," she said. "Everyone was pushing against each other like a rush."

For Joyce Royster, from Uniontown, Pennsylvania, who was also in the waiting room, the sound was unequivocal: "Bang, bang, bang.

In the meantime, witnesses said that Mr. Endsley had forced a door, Ms. Royster fled and other people followed. The group then headed to a small office and used a chair to block her door, said Ms. Royster. It took about 15 minutes for the security forces to give them permission to leave the room, she added.

As the group came out, Ms. Endsley said, she saw a woman lying on the floor, bleeding heavily from a gunshot wound. Mr. Endsley took off his belt and wrapped it around the victim's arm, she said.

Ms. Endsley said that the victim was calm and told her that she had been protected from assault on the shooter and that it was "not the first time that he was trying to kill her" .

For her part, Ms. Royster said she was grateful to have found a place to hide.

"I could be another statistic," she said. "God was with us."

The shooting took place at the epicenter of Masontown, about 50 miles south of Pittsburgh and has about 3,300 residents.