Witnesses to the worst mass shooting in American history could be heard describing the carnage at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub in 911 calls revealed Tuesday.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office released 20 dispatcher recordings from the June massacre that killed 49 people as media outlets continue seeking the Orlando Police Department’s 911 calls.
A neighbor to the gay nightclub targeted June 12 by Omar Mateen said in one of the calls to the sheriff’s office that frightened patrons were hiding behind his car and banging on his front door seeking shelter. Another caller dialed 911 shortly after the shots rang out.
“And you’re not injured?” the dispatcher asked him.
“No, no, no, I’m fine,” he said. “We were leaving the club, and then as soon as we left, gunshots were just going like crazy.”
Another man told a dispatcher his girlfriend was sending him texts as she and several others hid in a bathroom at Pulse, according to ABC News.
“There’s like 18 people, two are dead, they’re in the bathroom,” he said. “They’re all scared to death, they all think they’re gonna die.”
His girlfriend was speaking to him through the text messages to keep the shooter or shooters from hearing her voice, he said. She stopped responding to his messages at one moment.
“It’s OK, she might be with the deputies or she might be just trying not to let the light come out,” the dispatcher said. “I’m gonna stay on the phone with you.”
Another caller said his friend was ailing from wounds in a bathroom in a spot where no one could see him.
“We called him because he posted on Facebook that he had got shot, so we said, ‘Is everything OK?’ He said, ‘Got shot three times.’ We said, ‘Where are you?’ And the response was ‘In bathroom, tell them to check the bathroom,'” the caller said.
The calls became more despairing and angry as the three-hour standoff wore on. One man said he got home from Pulse earlier in the night only to hear from a friend who was shot.
“My friend told me he got shot three times,” the man said. “He said he’s in the bathroom and he goes, ‘Help. Help!’ I’m not there, I can’t do nothing!”
“Do not text him or call him, OK? Just in case,” the dispatcher told him. “Because if he has a phone, you know ringing or making noise or something, we don’t know anything about anything. So at this point we don’t want any noises around.”
The man who had called about his girlfriend earlier in the night called 911 again hours later.
“There are now four dead in the bathroom and two shot, they’re bleeding now. And if someone doesn’t there soon, they’re gonna die,” he said.
“I just finally was able to speak with her again and there’s nobody in the f—–g nightclub. And this is the fifth time I’m telling you the location.”
And a desparate father called in tears about his son while driving in a panic to Orlando to try to find him.
“He got shot and nobody’s going in there for him!” the man said.
Police said officers fatally shot Mateen following the standoff. More audio from 911 calls may show the difficulties faced by investigators as they decided when to send in a SWAT team.
One call from Pulse to the Orlando Police Department included a 28-minute call from the shooter himself saying he pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.
Mateen was “saying that he is a terrorist and has several bombs strapped to him in the downstairs female restroom,” according to a log of the department’s calls released in June.
The department has yet to release audio of its calls. The city of Orlando and two dozen news media companies have gone to court over allowing the recordings to go public.
With News Wire Services.
