Dallas Chief of Police Jesse Curry was riding in the lead car of the Presidential motorcade with sheriff James Eric "Bill" Decker when they turned west off Houston Street onto Elm Street. Looking straight ahead, they noticed "a few unauthorized people on the overpass and wondered how they got there." Those people were later described as thirteen railroad men and two policemen who were stationed on the overpass (Triple Underpass) against rules of protocol. After the Presidential motorcade had proceeded a few more yards, Curry heard the first gunshot and immediately shouted over the police radio: "Get a man on top of that triple underpass and see what happened up there!"[4] His words sounded an alarm that something was dreadfully wrong