~150 YEARS~ rn @ ~ zs: t""' Monday, November 7, 1994 • Vol. XXVI No. 46 ~NOTRE DAME·IN ~ THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING NOTRE DAME AND SAINT MARY'S Capitol tour turns into brush with history Pair from Saint Mary's get snap­ shots they'll never forget from White House gunman By lAURA FERGUSON he moved a little but he was Saint Mary's News Editor still in the shot." According to Mutidjo the During the mid-semester man, later identified as break, Tanya Wilson and Esti Francisco Martin Duran of Mutidjo saw the sights of the Colorado Springs. was not very nation's capital - Arlington tall, Spanish-looking with dark Cemetery, the Lincoln Memo­ curly hair and it looked as rial, the Washington Monument though he hadn't shaved. and the lone gunman who fired Since they were looking for 30 rounds into the White House someone to take their picture grounds. with the White House in the On October 29, Wilson and background, Wilson asked Mutidjo, both Saint Mary's stu­ Duran to take their picture. He dents, were scheduled to attend agreed. a wedding in the Washington After snapping their picture, D.C. area. but instead they ven­ Duran returned their camera tured into the city to visit some and wished them a good day. of the points of interest which Wilson and Mutidjo heard the they missed the day before, shots from Duran's Chinese including the White House. made semi-automatic rifle Like many other tourists, Wil­ while they were on the south­ Photo courtesy of Esti Mutidjo son and Mutidjo stood on Penn­ west side of the White House. Francisco Duran, the second person from the right in the center group, is caught on film by Saint Mary"s sylvania Avenue in front of the "At first we thought it was students Esti Mutidjo and Tanya Wilson, who talked to Duran moments before he fired 30 rounds at the White House to take photos, fire crackers so everyone was White House on October 29. but a man wearing a tan trench looking up at the sky and run," said Mutidjo. "I was Hearitlg this, Wilson spoke up minutes later we would have coat was standing in the way of laughing," said Wilson. "The scared that I was in the line of and said she may have seen the seen the whole thing and been their picture. Secret Service in the area then fire but Tanya grabbed me." gunman while they were on two feet behind him," said Wil­ "The man wasn't doing any­ realized that the noise was After the commotion died Pennsylvania Avenue. son. "It was crazy and excit­ thing strange, he just acted like gunfire. They told everyone to down a little bit, Wilson walked According to Wilson, the ing." a normal tourist," said Wilson. get down on the ground while to the secret service station secret service said they might Wilson also commented how "We only noticed him because at least 40 Secret Service men where a group of secret service have to take their camera and it was strange that the Secret he was wearing a coat and it ran into the White House and agents were talking together in film but because Duran was Service was not able to catch was gorgeous out but it was black vans appeared from a group. According to Wilson, caught by two civilian Duran before he sprayed the unbuttoned so it didn't look like nowhere." someone in the group asked bystanders. The camera was White House grounds with bul- he was hiding anything. He "As the Secret Service men what the gunman looked like never confiscated. turned around to look at us and started running I started to and an agent described Duran. "If we had been there four see SHOOTING I page 4 Rita testifies in own defense By DAVE TYLER News Editor SOUTH BEND Notre Dame Law School Graduate John Rita took the witness stand in his own de­ fense Friday, as his trial on charges of causing a death while driving drunk and leaving the scene of an accident moves towards its conclusion. Rita is being tried in connec­ tion with the death of then Notre Dame freshman Mara Fox last November 13. Fox, 18, of Oakton, Virginia, was struck and killed in a hit and run crash on Douglas Road as she and several friends were returning to campus from a Grape Road restaurant. The case could go to the jury some­ time today. Defense attorney Charles Asher questioned his client for more than an hour in an at­ in­ to tempt to recount the events and vestigation testified that those his drinking habits. Rita said he circumstances surrounding the were Rita's first words to them was a "social drinker" who par­ accident. An emotional Rita, that morning. tied "once a weekend night." 25, told the court he was Rita also maintained that he He continued to say that he dumbfounded when he woke to made every attempt to comply only had three beers and a shot find police officers in his bed­ with police officer's requests. of liqueur in a period of time room early Saturday morning. He said he did not ask ques­ ranging from shortly after the ''I've never experienced any­ tions of the officers, nor did he Florida State-Notre Dame pep thing like it," Rita testified. "I refuse to cooperate in any way. rally until 11:30 p.m. that was shocked when they told me Rita said he did not refuse a evening. Rita told the court he I was under arrest." Rita con­ breath test when authorities was sober and did not consume tinued to say that his reaction confronted him about taking twelve to sixteen beers as one was anything but a callous one one. prosecution witness suggested. as the prosecution contended in "They told me there was an· "There was no way I was in­ its case. unofficial one (a portable test toxicated or impaired," Rita The Observer/ Rob Finch "I hung my head. I was police had with them) and an said. Heart and Soul speechless," Rita said. He as­ official one (the Intoxilazer at Rita testified that he did not serted that he never told au­ St. Joseph County jail). I said attempt to flee the area after A participant sings as people look on at Hallelujah Night II, held at thorities, "I'm shocked my 'Give me the official one,"' Rita Stepan Center on Saturday night. friends turned me in." Several testified. see TRIAL I page 4 page 2 The Observer • INSIDE Monday, November 7, 1994 • INSIDE COLUMN • Wmu.. o AT A GLANCE A church Woman decided at last moment not to take fatal fli ht 4184 worth fighting LOS ANGELES "They just looked at me funny When the airline said there when I checked in at Chicago," for would be a $35 penalty to change she said. "I was waiting for them I had a good, normal, Catholic upbringing. her flight plans, Maria Peterson to say, 'You owe us $35.' But the Since I was young, I've gone to Mass, attended agreed to pay. She didn't know it woman just told me to go right on CCD classes and served as both an altar boy was the price of her life and that the flight." and a lector. of her 2-year-old son. Peterson didn't learn the fate of Until about a year ago, I ------­ The Santa Barbara woman had Flight 4184 until she got home in was an average Catholic. I been booked on American Eagle Santa Barbara, about 120 miles really didn't think too Flight 4184, which crashed northofLosAngeles. much about the issues fac­ Monday en route from Her husband, who knew she ing our church. But Indianapolis to Chicago, killing had switched her plans, greeted recently, I really took a all 68 people aboard. her and their son Christopher in hard look at the church Peterson, in Indiana for a the driveway. and I'm not sure if I like friend's wedding, changed her "I told her she would have been everything I've learned. plans after the bride and two killed," said Eric Peterson. "She Strangely enough, this other friends convinced her to thought it was a bad joke and I started last summer after John Lucas drive with them to Chicago was making it up." I began interning for an Managing Editor instead of flying. Peterson said she kept asking Archdiocesan newspaper. Dropping one leg of her flight her husband: "You're kidding, It's probably more than a - she still needed to catch an right?" little ironic that my working for the church American Airlines flight from "But then I saw his face and I would lead me to question it. Chicago to Los Angeles- wasn't knew he wasn't making it up," My main source of information was the easy. she said. "I grabbed hold of him Catholic News Service, a wire service that is a "The airline people gave me a and hugged him and my son." Catholic equivalent to the Associated Press. hard time," Peterson said in a a ~~~~e~!::'r "It's hard to describe the feel- Every day I read the news stories that came in telephone interview with The tolheground. ing - knowing you could have over the wire. Many were about Catholics from Associated Press. "They said if~~~~~~~~~=====~~~~ lost your whole family," her bus- all over the world, doing good works and having you don't use a portion of the band said.