____front of the motel, a big white Cadillac was parked; it was the car which the Rev. Martin Luther King was being driven round, as he traveled through the southern states, speaking to audiences ___ towns and cities, promoting the cause of non-violence and civil rights.

When King stepped out onto the balcony, to take a breath of fresh air after eating his dinner, a shot rang out. The civil rights leader and Nobel-prizewinner, the man who preached non-violence, fell to the ground, fatally wounded. Within minutes, he was dead.

In “When King stepped out onto the balcony, to take a breath of fresh air after eating his dinner”, the expression in bold means