Sebije Nelovic is the one who got away — the cleaner who dodged death as the Park Ave. shooter opened fire on her but missed. She somehow managed to flee and hid in a supply closet, where she stayed for nearly three hours until police pulled her out.
The 65-year-old employee of Rudin Management was on the 33rd floor of 345 Park Ave. in Midtown East Manhattan early Monday evening when gunman Shane Tamura opened fire, blasting numerous shots through the firm’s glass doors.
“I heard the noise,” said Nelovic, who was cleaning in a reception area and had just switched off a lamp. “I thought it was firecrackers. Then I saw the glass down on the floor.”
Then she saw the gunman.
He was some way off down the floor, she said, though nothing stood between the two of them.
“He didn’t say anything,” she recalled. “I said, ‘I’m the cleaning lady’ and I put my hands up. It don’t mean nothing — he just shot.”
“I saw him and he put the gun up and shot [at] me,” she said. “It did not hit me, thank God, and then I’m running in the corner. He ran past.
“If he find me I was gone — but God saved me.”
Moments later, she heard screaming, later learning Rudin associate Julia Hyman had been killed.
“I talk to her every day,” Nelovic said. “She’s so nice, so sweet. I’m sorry for her and I’m sorry for everybody.”
Tamura shot himself dead after killing Hyman, police said.
Nelovic, however, remained in the closet, too frightened to come out. When police, found her, an officer reassured her.
“It’s OK. You’re OK,” he told her.
She wasn’t hurt, she told him, but wanted to get off of that floor, refusing to talk to police there. So they took her to the lobby, where she recounted her brush with death.
She’s been with Rudin Management for 27 years and considers the firm her family.
She’s seen countless news reports about workplace shootings.
“But you think, ‘No, no, no,’” Nelovic said. “Not where I work.”
Nelovic is married, has two sons and lives in Queens. She said her family “was shaking” when they saw her after the horrific incident.
“That day I was strong. Now, when I think about it…,” she said, her voice trailing off.
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