'Don't leave us now:' Rev. Jesse Jackson recalls moment MLK was fatally shot

Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated outside his room on April 4, 1968, surrounded by other civil rights leaders, including Rev. Jesse Jackson.

“The bullet hit him and severed his tie and then the bullet when down. I heard someone say ‘get low, get low’ because we thought they were stray bullets. We didn’t know, we were running toward the steps,” Jackson said.

Jackson said the day is forever etched in his mind as he and thousands of others across the nation are spending time remembering the 50th anniversary of the somber occasion.

Outside room 306 of the motel, which has been turned into the National Civil Rights Museum, it looks as though time has stood still.

“You see a picture of Andy and I pointing. We’re pointing because the police were coming to us with drawn guns and we were saying the bullet came from that way and I said ‘Martin, don’t leave us now, don’t leave us now. We need you,’” Jackson recalled.

Jackson said he was hoping against hope that King had been shot in the shoulder, but it wasn’t long before he realized the shot was fatal.

Jackson said he was the one who called Kings wife, Coretta Scott King, to tell her the devastating news.

A huge program is scheduled for Wednesday to remember King’s life. A commemorative bell has been designed to be run at the exact moment the fatal shot rang out.