14th Floor No Haven From Streets : Violence: Witnesses say the scene inside the MCA high-rise was one of confusion, terror--and courage.

The horror that comes with the city’s ever-escalating episodes of crime and violence never intruded into Dixie Tung’s world, except through the screen of her television set.

On Tuesday, it came calling on the North Hollywood woman in the most direct manner and in the most unlikely of places--as she worked in her office 14 floors above the ground, ensconced behind the smoked-glass windows of Black Tower in Universal City.

Tung, 41, was one of two MCA executive secretaries hit with bullets fired by a former MCA employee taking aim from the ground far below. Five other employees were injured by flying glass.

“I’m still in shock,” said Tung, lying on a hospital gurney awaiting surgery for two bullet wounds to her upper right arm. “It is unbelievable, inconceivable, that this could happen to me.”

“I watch the news all the time,” added her husband, Raj Tung, 33, as he hovered over her in the emergency room at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. “I never thought this could happen to us.”

During an attack that lasted several minutes, witnesses said, the scene inside Black Tower was one of terror and confusion--and courage.

First, there was the crack of gunfire. In their offices and open-air cubicles, employees ducked for cover, assuming that the shots were coming from somewhere inside the tower. But then they noticed the shattered glass, the blood and the injured, and there was pandemonium.

“We all panicked,” said Pat Kelly, who was also on the 14th floor. But then “everybody came together to help those who had been shot. Everybody seemed to conduct themselves with cool heads,” Kelly said.

Tung had just finished her breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and a gravy-covered muffin when she first heard the first of many rifle reports. She remembers thinking the cracking sounds were a little too “odd” to be a car backfiring.

When another secretary on the 14th floor, Nettie Marie Gilreath, 58, wondered aloud if shots had been fired and began walking toward the huge picture window, Tung instinctively went to her. As Tung reached the window, Gilreath was hit by flying glass.

It was then that Tung was shot, twice. “I felt it immediately,” Tung recalled. “It plowed right through.”

Later, as she was readied for surgery, Tung clutched a cranberry-colored blanket for warmth. She said she had no recollection of pain, or the sight of her own blood.

“All I remember,” she said, “is running down the hallway yelling, ‘Help me, help me. Somebody help me.’ ”

Several employees on the floors above the fourth floor of the 15-story tower also were injured. But Tung and Anna Kim, 25, of Hacienda Heights were the only two to suffer bullet wounds, according to officials at the three hospitals where victims were taken.

Kim, shot once in the arm, was treated and released from Cedars-Sinai. Tung suffered more serious injuries, but was in good condition heading into surgery Tuesday afternoon, doctors said.

“We’ve been told she’s doing very well, and that the prognosis is very good for her,” MCA spokeswoman Christine Hanson said.

In all the commotion, others thought that they were shot as well. But their injuries were caused by flying glass. In the frenzy that followed the first crash of bullets through the window, however, witnesses said it was hard to tell what was happening.

On the 12th floor, executive assistant Diana Maitland had just finished sending some papers on the fax machine and sat down at her desk when she heard a crash. Five feet above her head, a bullet had just crashed through the window, showering her and several colleagues with shards of glass.

“Had I been standing,” Maitland, 49, said, “I would not be talking to you now.”

Maitland hit the floor as shouts of “Stay down! Stay down! Somebody is shooting!” echoed through the floor. Some dived beneath their desks, while others reached for phones to call for help.

“It’s surrealistic and amazing and very frightening,” said Maitland of Toluca Lake, who described the gunfire as seemingly coming from several directions. Once the shots subsided, employees could hear the faint sound of sirens and nervously began creeping out from beneath their desks.

Maitland noticed that she had been struck on her knee and in her right eye, and saw the blood trickling down her leg. Next to her, Sandra Russell felt a sharp pain in the back of her head, then reached to where the impact was felt and braced herself for the worst.

“I thought I’d been shot,” Russell, also an executive assistant, said. “I felt (my head) and said it couldn’t be that I’ve been shot because I wouldn’t be this ‘with it.’ I realized I must have been hit by glass. There was so much glass--it shattered out.”

Maitland and Russell were treated and released from County-USC Medical Center.

“I’ve been there 23 years and I don’t expect something like this,” Maitland said. “It’s just totally out of sync with reality.”

“It’s the times now,” Russell said. “ Any place nowadays--you just never know.”

Also contributing to this story were Times staff writers Josh Meyer and Richard Lee Colvin.

‘Black Tower’ Shooting A man opened fire from the edge of a nearby park into the MCA World Headquartersbuilding in Universal City about 10 a.m. Tuesday. Seven employees were woundedin the 35- to 40-bullet barrage, two hit by bullets and five others cut by flying glass.

14th floor, Where the two gunshot victims were struck

Other floors hit by bullets 5, 7, 8, 9, 12

The weapon: The Remington 700 BDL *A high-quality hunting and target shooting rifle that sells for about $400 *Typically holds up to five rounds that must be individually chambered *The rifle was chambered for the 7-mm cartridge, accurate to approximately 400 yards.

In order to purchase a gun, a prospective buyer must submit to a 16-day waiting periodand a background check by the California Department of Justice. Researched by ANN BRENOFF / Los Angeles Times MAIN STORY: A1