The consensus among witnesses was three shots. Some heard only two; others heard four, five or six. The Warren Commission reported this spread itself and said gunshots in a plaza ringed by buildings are hard to count. [1]
Howard Brennan, a steamfitter sitting on a retaining wall about 120 feet from the window, promptly told a policeman he had seen a slender man of about 5 feet 10 inches take deliberate aim from the sixth-floor corner window and fire. At 12:45 p.m. the police radio broadcast a description based mainly on what he said. [5][1]
That evening Brennan picked Oswald out of a lineup as the man who most closely resembled the gunman, but said he could not make a positive identification. He had already seen Oswald’s picture on television. In December he told the FBI he was sure; in January he seemed to back off again. To the Commission he said he could have made a positive identification on the first night but held back out of fear: he thought it was “a Communist activity” and that his family “might not be safe.” Because of the wavering, the Commission said it did not base its conclusion on his later certainty. [2]
Two other witnesses, Ronald Fischer and Robert Edwards, described a man in that window about a minute before the shots, though neither saw any shooting. [2]
The House committee later sorted 178 witness statements on where the shots came from: 49, or 27.5%, said the Depository; 21, or 11.8%, said the grassy knoll; 30 named somewhere else; 78 could not say. Only four said shots came from more than one place. [3]
James Tague, standing near the triple underpass far down the street, was stung on the cheek by debris. A mark was found on the curb near him. This is the strongest evidence that at least one shot missed. [1][4]
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