City Manager Wants Safety Procedure Implemented Since Bullets Hit City Hall

City leaders are working to calm fears of people who work in the City Hall area after stray bullets from a shootout in Juarez hit City Hall in Downtown El Paso.

“That’s a huge concern,” said Jessica Ward.

Juan Estala added, “Certainly it’s a concern because you don’t know what’s expected.”

Others disagreed.

“The distance from here to there, I don’t think it’s going to happen again … to me it was random,” Rudy Genara said.

Most people told ABC-7 – even those that work at City Hall – They wouldn’t change their routine.

Raymond Telles works down the hall from where one of the bullets hit in Deputy City Manager Pat Adauto’s Office.

“Everyone was kind of looking around and saying, is that really what happened?” Telles said.

City Manager Joyce Wilson said the four people in the office hit the floor immediately and crawled out of the room.

Wilson said she did not think a bullet could reach City Hall from across the border.

“Now that something like this has happened, we’ll put in place more formal procedures, so that if something like this occurs again we have a kind of major notification quickly throughout the building for people to move away from the windows,” Wilson said.

One woman who was in attendance at the RMA meeting at City Council chambers Wednesday told ABC-7 they got into a discussion about the shooting and then those seated with their backs to Juarez got up and moved to the other side of the room.

“I think there’s some concern and it’s legitimate … I mean we work in a glass building,” Mayor John Cook said.

Cook said he received calls Wednesday from the governor’s office and U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, but Cook said there’s no reason to panic just yet.

“We think this is a very isolated incident,” Cook said.

Wilson said, “I think there’s very little we can do, if there’s going to be any real focus it needs to be focusing really with the Mexican government.”