Why would someone, whom Arnold surmised was part of the security detail, be firing at JFK? Arnold only saw the armed male once for 15 seconds in the SW corner of the 6th floor. He did not know where the gunman had gone nor did he see him again. Arnold and Barbara were looking at the parade not the TSBD. There actions post shots explain why they didn't look at the TSBD:
Mr. BELIN. Mrs. Rowland, did you have any idea where the shots came from or the sound?
Mrs. ROWLAND. Well, the people generally ran towards the railroad tracks behind the School Book Depository Building, and so I naturally assumed they came from there, because that is where all the policemen and everyone was going, and I couldn't tell where the sounds came from.
Mr. BELIN. So you just started over after them?
Mrs. ROWLAND. Yes.
Mr. BELIN. Did your husband go with you?
Mrs. ROWLAND. Yes; I grabbed his hand and he couldn't go anyplace else.
Mr. SPECTER. Did you have any impression or reaction as to the point of origin when you heard the first noise?
Mr. ROWLAND. Well, I began looking, I didn't look at the building mainly, and as practically any of the police officers that were there then will tell you, the echo effect was such that it sounded like it came from the railroad yards. That is where I looked, that is where all the policemen, everyone, converged on the railroads.
Mr. SPECTER. After the shots occurred, did you ever look back at the Texas School Book Depository Building?
Mr. ROWLAND. No; I did not. In fact, I went over toward the scene of the railroad yards myself.
Mr. SPECTER. Why did you not look back at the Texas School Book Depository Building in view of the fact that you had seen a man with a rifle up there earlier in the day?
Mr. ROWLAND. I don't remember. It was mostly due to the confusion, and then the fact that it sounded like it came from this area "C," and that all the officers, enforcement officers, were converging on that area, and I just didn't pay any attention to it at that time.
Mr. SPECTER. How many officers were converging on that area, to the best of your ability to recollect and estimate?
Mr. ROWLAND. I think it would be a very good estimation of 50, maybe more.
Why would Arnold be looking at the TSBD when both he and his wife thought the shots came from the rail yards and both saw the Police converging there?
Mr. SPECTER. When, if at all, did you first report what you had observed in the Texas School Book Depository Building about the man with the rifle to anyone in an official position?
Mr. ROWLAND. That was approximately 15 minutes after the third report that I went to an officer, he was a plainclothesman who was there combing the area, close to position "C," looking for footprints and such as this, some lady said someone jumped off one of the colonnades and started running, there was an officer looking in this area for footprints and such as this.
Arnold mentioned about the African-American because he found out where the shots had come from.
Mr. SPECTER. Shortly after the assassination and before these interviews that you described were completed, Mr. Rowland, had you learned or heard that the shots were supposed to have come out of the window which we have marked with the "A"?
Mr. ROWLAND. No, sir. I did not know that, in fact until Saturday when I read the paper.
Mr. SPECTER. Which Saturday is that?
Mr. ROWLAND. The following Saturday.
Mr. SPECTER. Would that be the second day, the day after the assassination?
Mr. ROWLAND. Yes.
Mr. SPECTER. Well, knowing that, at that time, did you attach any particular significance to the presence of the Negro gentleman, whom you have described, that you saw in window "A"?
Mr. ROWLAND. Yes; that is why I brought it to the attention of the FBI agents who interviewed me that day. This was as an afterthought because I did not think of it firsthand. But I did bring it to their attention before they left, and they??
Mr. SPECTER. That was at the interview on the Saturday morning November 23?
Mr. ROWLAND. Yes.
Mr. SPECTER. Did you think it of sufficient significance to bring it to the attention of any of the other interviewing FBI agents on the balance of the interviews you have described?
Mr. ROWLAND. Yes; I did on the following Sunday to the agents who interviewed me where I worked.
Mr. SPECTER. Now, at the time you made the Saturday statement, which you say was transcribed and appears as Exhibit 358, did you at that time tell the interviewing FBI agents about the colored gentleman who you testified was in the window which you marked with an "A"?
Mr. ROWLAND. Yes; I did.
Mr. SPECTER. Did you ask them at that time to include the information in the statement which they took from you?
Mr. ROWLAND. No. I think I told them about it after the statement, as an afterthought, an afterthought came up, it came into my mind. I also told the agents that took a statement from me on Sunday. They didn't seem very interested, so I just forgot about it for a while.
Mr. SPECTER. Was that information included in the written portion of the statement which was taken from you on Sunday?
Mr. ROWLAND. No, it wasn't. It shouldn't but the agent deleted it though himself, I mean I included it in what I gave.
Mr. SPECTER. When you say deleted it, did he strike it out after putting it in, or did he omit it in the transcription?
Mr. ROWLAND. Omitted it.
Senator COOPER. I think you said a while ago that when you told the FBI agents on Saturday that you had seen this Negro man in the window, that they indicated to you that they weren't interested in it at all. What did they say which gave you that impression?
Mr. ROWLAND. I don't remember exactly what was said. The context was again the agents were trying to find out if I could positively identify the man that I saw. They were concerned mainly with this, and I brought up to them about the Negro man after I had signed the statement, and at that time he just told me that they were just trying to find out about or if anyone could identify the man who was up there. They just didn't seem interested at all. They didn't pursue the point. They didn't take it down in the notation as such.
Mr. SPECTER. It was more of the fact that they didn't pursue it, didn't include it?
Mr. ROWLAND. Yes.
Mr. SPECTER. Or that they said something which led you to believe they were not interested?
Mr. ROWLAND. It was just the fact they didn't pursue it. I mean, I just mentioned that I saw him in that window. They didn't ask me, you know, if was this at the same time or such. They just didn't seem very interested in that at all.
Mr. WRIGHT. By man who was up there you mean man with the rifle?
Mr. ROWLAND. They were interested in the man with the rifle, and finding out if anyone could identify him. The other man was the colored man in the other window.
Except, Rowland did not know the president had been shot. Rowland had no idea where the shots were coming from or who they were directed towards. Arnold stated the man in the SW corner of the 6th floor of the TSBD was specifically there to protect the president. Rowland was not aware of who was shooting at who. He did not even briefly scan the window or the building to see if the place where he stated a man was positioned with a rifle, specifically placed there to guard the president, was firing the rifle to protect the president. This very thought obviously crossed the minds of the panel and the attorneys. They asked him three times and each time he gave a different answer. Yes, No , and maybe he looked at the window
Rowland's answer to Specter confirms he never seen a gunman to begin with or he would have known why he never looked.
Mr. BELIN. Mrs. Rowland, did you have any idea where the shots came from or the sound?
Mrs. ROWLAND. Well, the people generally ran towards the railroad tracks behind the School Book Depository Building, and so I naturally assumed they came from there, because that is where all the policemen and everyone was going, and
I couldn't tell where the sounds came from.
Mr. SPECTER. After the shots occurred, did you ever look back at the Texas School Book Depository Building?
Mr. ROWLAND. No; I did not. In fact, I went over toward the scene of the railroad yards myself.
Mr. SPECTER. Why did you not look back at the Texas School Book Depository Building in view of the fact that you had seen a man with a rifle up there earlier in the day?
Mr. ROWLAND.
I don't remember. It was mostly due to the confusion, and then the fact that it sounded like it came from this area "C," and that all the officers, enforcement officers, were converging on that area,
and I just didn't pay any attention to it at that time. The whole idea that he would not look if he really had seen a man with a gun calls into question his whole story .