San Bernardino Shooting: Heart-wrenching, must-hear survivor stories - Part II

'I'm in a tiny room with a bunch of people. We're freaking out. Please pray for us.'

Following the mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, several survivors have shared their stories and described the series of events that took place on Wednesday.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - CNN spoke to Rudy Peralta, who received a text message from his wife, Christina Conzalez-Peralta, a social worker at the Inland Regional Center. She wrote, "Check the news. Not sure if we're having an active shooter."

Gonzalez-Peralta and twelve of her coworkers hid in a little-known file room, where they felt safe, but when it was suggested they move furniture to barricade the door, no one moved.

Peralta shared his wife's message saying, "Everyone was too scared. 'I said keep quiet and don't make noise.'" The small group hid for over thirty minutes before the SWAT team discovered and rescued them.

When he spoke to CNN, Peralta admitted he heard on the radio that the suspects were engaged in a shootout with police and said, "I heard they caught them. I'm anxious to see her and make sure she is OK."

That was when Gonzalez-Peralta called. 

"That's the first time I talked to her," Peralta said. "She just feels relieved now. You hear it on the news, but you never think it would hit so close to home."

Lavina Johnson, the executive director of the Inland Regional Center, said staff and clients locked themselves in offices when the shooting started, and remained there until authorities arrived.

Johnson said, "As far as we know, we're all OK," adding that they were ushed to a golf course across the street. She said someone set off the fire alarm and at first people tried to evacuate the building. 

"We thought it was a fire drill. We started to exit. ... We were told to go back into the building."

Megan, a processing clerk at the Center, sent her parents Scott and Deborah Murphy several text messages as the shooting commenced. 

"Active shooter on site. We're all locked in offices and on the floor. Please pray for us," she wrote.

Scott Murphy said: "So, as a parent, as a father, that's kind of like the worst thing that you can have come across your phone. Then it was followed a couple minutes later with 'SWAT team is on site trying to secure the building. I'm in a tiny room with a bunch of people. We're freaking out.
Please pray for us."

Following the evacuation, Megan was sent to be interviewed by investigators.

Megan's mother said, "She's really sick. She's dizzy. She's not feeling good ... Hopefully, they'll get her processed and we can get her back in our arms."

Paul Lacroix, whose son Garrett survived the attack, told CBS LA that they "probably had 20 text messages between us," but is "at ease" now that he knows his son is safe.

Garret said: "The fire alarm went off and we saw people searching the building. Someone stared shouting in the halls that there was possibly a bomb. We saw officers with vests and automatic weapons. We wer all corralled into a corner of the building. They patted us all down and checked our bags, our identification and registration."

Police later engaged in a car chase with two of the shooting suspects, resulting in a shootout where suspects Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik were both killed.

Mahir, a witness who asked only to be described by his first name, was near the police shootout with the two suspects. "We didn't see much of anything," he said. "We just heard so many gunshots, it's crazy. Right now, everything seems to be cooled down. We just saw so many SWAT and cops and cop cars, at least a dozen or so."

Authorities have yet to determine the reason behind the shooting.

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