HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — As gunfire boomed over and over in the background, a janitor begged a 911 dispatcher to send help, saying, “There’s still shooting going on! Please!” A woman breathlessly reported seeing a gunman run down a hall. And a teacher said she was holed up in her classroom with her children but hadn’t yet locked the door.
Recordings of 911 calls from last year’s Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting were released Wednesday, and they not only paint a picture of anguish and tension inside the building, they also show Newtown dispatchers mobilizing help, reassuring callers and urging them to take cover.
“Keep everybody calm. Keep everybody down. Get everybody away from windows, OK?” one dispatcher told the frightened teacher who reported hearing shots in the hall.
The calls were made public under a court order after a lengthy effort by The Associated Press. Prosecutors had argued that releasing the recordings would only cause more anguish for the victims’ families.
The gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, shot his way through a plate-glass window at the front of the school on Dec. 14. The office staff saw the shooter, who was wearing a hat and sunglasses, as he entered the building with a rifle and began firing down a hallway.
One of the first callers to Newtown police was a woman who said in a trembling, out-of-breath voice: “I think there’s somebody shooting in here at Sandy Hook school.”
Asked what made her think so, she said: “Because somebody’s got a gun. I caught a glimpse of somebody. They’re running down the hallway. Oh, they’re still running. They’re still shooting. Sandy Hook school, please.”
Another woman, who was shot in the foot, calmly reported that she was in a classroom with children and two other adults, but that there was no way to safely lock the door. The dispatcher told her to apply pressure to the wound.
“OK, are you OK right now?” the dispatcher asked.
The woman answered: “For now, hopefully.”
Another call came from a custodian, Rick Thorne, who said that a window at the front of the school was shattered and that he kept hearing shooting.
While on the line with Thorne, the dispatcher told somebody else: “Get everyone you can going down there.”
Thorne remained on the phone for several minutes.
“There’s still shooting going on! Please!” the custodian pleaded as six or seven shots could be heard in the background. “Still, it’s still going on!”
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