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Diner Customers Discuss Sniper

Aired October 23, 2002 - 11:14   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The sniper attacks have disrupted day-to-day life in suburban communities in D.C. and Virginia. Residents have been coping with a sense of fear and anxiety since the attacks began.
CNN's Kevin Sites is getting reactions from a diner in Silver Spring, Maryland.

KEVIN SITES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

I'm in the Tastee Diner, which is in Silver Spring, Maryland. Normally, this place is hopping. It's a bacon and eggs joint. The manager told me that business is down 20 percent here, which costs about $10,000 a week. But the more important thing is the impact that these sniper shootings are having on people's lives here in Montgomery County, these people that are living in the epicenter of this terror.

Sir, if you could you tell me your name please?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ron Slatkin (ph).

SITES: Ron (ph), how has this impacted your daily routine here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It hasn't.

SITES: Not at all?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not at all.

SITES: You were telling me a little earlier that you were telling your daughter something about how she should live her life in the midst of all this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I'm going to be 72 soon. Maybe that's a factor in what I'm saying to you. But I would encourage all my children and grandchildren to go about their lives in their usual manner, because this is something you just can't, in my view hide, put your head under the sand.

SITES: That's some good advice.

We're going to try to get a few more opinions here while we have got time. A lot of people have talked about continuing living their life in the normal way. It is difficult under these circumstances.

Have you changed your routine at all since these sniper shootings have started? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I haven't. I walk to work a mile and a half each day every day and (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

SITES: Is there any greater fear for you at this point?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think so. I'm conscious of it, but I don't think fear. I worked in the emergency operating center in New York City after the World Trade Center event and I think I got maybe desensitized to some of these things. so...

SITES: That's a sad statement for what's happening right now, isn't it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it is. Yes.

SITES: Ma'am, how about you? Has it affected you at all in terms of your fear level and so on?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, not at all, no. I don't think about it.

Also, another thing, I don't like giving him the power, you know, to have everyone afraid. I don't like giving him the satisfaction.

SITES: Well, he certainly does have a sense of that power here. I got a chance to talk to an emergency room doctor here recently. He didn't want to be seen on camera. He said he just worked three 12- hour shifts, and he said during each of those shifts, he had at least six people per shift come in with acute anxieties, literally trembling. What they were asking is for prescriptions to Valium. They said that basically this was not someone just wanting a prescription drug; these were people that were actually so fearful they were trembling, basically because of these sniper shootings and because of the terror that they live with every single day here.

Back to you -- Carol.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired October 23, 2002 - 11:14   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The sniper attacks have disrupted day-to-day life in suburban communities in D.C. and Virginia. Residents have been coping with a sense of fear and anxiety since the attacks began.
CNN's Kevin Sites is getting reactions from a diner in Silver Spring, Maryland.

KEVIN SITES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

I'm in the Tastee Diner, which is in Silver Spring, Maryland. Normally, this place is hopping. It's a bacon and eggs joint. The manager told me that business is down 20 percent here, which costs about $10,000 a week. But the more important thing is the impact that these sniper shootings are having on people's lives here in Montgomery County, these people that are living in the epicenter of this terror.

Sir, if you could you tell me your name please?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ron Slatkin (ph).

SITES: Ron (ph), how has this impacted your daily routine here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It hasn't.

SITES: Not at all?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not at all.

SITES: You were telling me a little earlier that you were telling your daughter something about how she should live her life in the midst of all this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I'm going to be 72 soon. Maybe that's a factor in what I'm saying to you. But I would encourage all my children and grandchildren to go about their lives in their usual manner, because this is something you just can't, in my view hide, put your head under the sand.

SITES: That's some good advice.

We're going to try to get a few more opinions here while we have got time. A lot of people have talked about continuing living their life in the normal way. It is difficult under these circumstances.

Have you changed your routine at all since these sniper shootings have started? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I haven't. I walk to work a mile and a half each day every day and (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

SITES: Is there any greater fear for you at this point?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think so. I'm conscious of it, but I don't think fear. I worked in the emergency operating center in New York City after the World Trade Center event and I think I got maybe desensitized to some of these things. so...

SITES: That's a sad statement for what's happening right now, isn't it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it is. Yes.

SITES: Ma'am, how about you? Has it affected you at all in terms of your fear level and so on?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, not at all, no. I don't think about it.

Also, another thing, I don't like giving him the power, you know, to have everyone afraid. I don't like giving him the satisfaction.

SITES: Well, he certainly does have a sense of that power here. I got a chance to talk to an emergency room doctor here recently. He didn't want to be seen on camera. He said he just worked three 12- hour shifts, and he said during each of those shifts, he had at least six people per shift come in with acute anxieties, literally trembling. What they were asking is for prescriptions to Valium. They said that basically this was not someone just wanting a prescription drug; these were people that were actually so fearful they were trembling, basically because of these sniper shootings and because of the terror that they live with every single day here.

Back to you -- Carol.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com