he sat in his 1968 Chevrolet Chevelle outside his house on South White Street, shouting: "I don't want to kill you, but I'll kill you too!" Essex drove Albert's vehicle to the 17-story Downtown Howard Johnson's Hotel at 330 Loyola Avenue in New Orleans' Central Business District, across the street from City Hall and Orleans Parish Civil District Court. He parked the vehicle on the fourth level of the hotel's garage and climbed the fire escape stairs directly across from the garage in an effort to gain illegal entry via an unlocked door, but each successive door he attempted to open, he discovered to be locked. As Essex attempted to enter the eighth floor via this method, he exclaimed to two hotel maids: "Let me in, sisters. I've got something to do." The two women refused, citing hotel regulations. As Essex ran up the stairs to the ninth floor, the two women observed the rifle in his hands and ran to alert management of the impending threat. Gaining entry to the hotel via a door on the 18th and top floor which had been propped open with a stack of linen, Essex first encountered three African American employees of the hotel. He immediately said to one of these individuals: "Don't worry, sister. We're only shooting whites today." These employees also ran to notify authorities. In the hallway by room 1829, Essex encountered 28-year-old Dr. Robert Steagall, who observed Essex and exclaimed, "What are you doing?" As Essex raised his rifle, Steagall lunged at him. Following a brief struggle in which he was shot through the arm, Steagall was knocked to the floor and fatally shot through the chest. His 25-year-old wife, Elizabeth, screamed "Please don't kill my husband!" As she attempted to cradle her husband's body, Essex shot her once through the base of her skull, killing her almost instantly. Essex then entered the Steagalls' room; he soaked telephone books with lighter fluid and set them ablaze beneath the curtains before dropping a Pan-African flag onto the floor beside the bodies of the couple as he ran toward one of the hotel's interior stairwells. On the 11th floor, Essex entered several vacant rooms and ignited more fires—likely by burning bedding within the rooms (the draperies within the hotel rooms were fire retardant). He also shot and killed the hotel's assistant manager, 62-year-old Frank Schneider, who had proceeded to the 11th