NEWS

911 calls paint picture of horror in Orlando nightclub attack

Arek L Sarkissian
Naples Daily News

TALLAHASSEE - An unidentified woman called police during the Pulse nightclub shooting rampage and said her brother was hiding in a bathroom, describing a terrifying scene with "a lot of dead people," newly released 911 calls reveal.

This file photo taken on June 12, 2016 shows police standing behind a crime scene tape near the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub  in Orlando, Florida.

“When he called us he was in the bathroom and he said there’s a lot of dead people,” the woman told an Orange County dispatcher at 2:20 a.m., just minutes after self-proclaimed jihadist Omar Mateen began shooting in the June 12 attack. Mateen killed 49 people and injured more than 50 others before police killed him, ending the three-hour standoff.

The woman told the dispatcher her 20-year-old brother was stuck in one of the bathrooms and was with a lot of other people. In response, the dispatcher calmly said, "I understand. We’re pulling victims out. We’re searching for everybody. Have patience.”

Another call came from a man who pleaded with dispatchers to help his son after he was shot inside the club.

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“He got shot and nobody is going in for him,” the man told a dispatcher as he fought back sobs. “He’s in the bathroom and nobody’s going in for him.”

The man made the call at 5:03 a.m. just before police ended the standoff by killing Mateen.

Another man who called 911 three times beginning at 3:44 a.m. became frustrated as his ex-girlfriend begged him to send her help. She was also trapped in a bathroom, one of three in the gay nightclub just south of downtown Orlando. The man said she was in the bathroom with 18 people and over the course of the calls, four people had died.

“When are you going to help them?” the man asked the dispatcher, sounding angry. “People are dead and two people are dying.”

In another call, the same man told dispatchers his ex-girlfriend feared for her life.

“They’re scared to death and they think they’re all going to die,” he said.

The recordings released by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office do not include calls to the Orlando Police Department by people from inside the club or from the 29-year-old shooter. Those records are part of a public records lawsuit between the City of Orlando and news organizations, including the USA TODAY Network.

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The shooting flooded phone lines at the Orlando Police Department, prompting the sheriff’s office to take calls as well. Efforts by county dispatchers to forward calls to Orlando police were met by busy signals several times.

The first call taken by county dispatchers came at 2:03 a.m. was from a man who had just left the club moments before Mateen began to shoot from his Sig Sauer MCX assault rifle. He told dispatchers he heard more than 10 gunshots.

“We were leaving the club and as soon as we left the gunshots were going like crazy,” the man told a dispatcher.

Another call from a man who lived near the club said people were pounding on the front door of his home and hiding behind his vehicle outside.

“I need the police out here now,” the man told the dispatcher in Spanish. “I don’t know who has guns.”