Current:Home > Contact-us911 calls from Georgia school shooting released-LoTradeCoin
911 calls from Georgia school shooting released
View Date:2024-12-24 07:36:19
Family members of students and staff at Apalachee High School called 911 to find out about their loved ones after a mass shooting that left four dead unfolded on Sept. 4, newly released audio reveals.
The 911 call center in Barrow County was inundated after the shooting began at about 10:20 a.m., when authorities say 14-year-old Colt Gray began his rampage. Some callers were met with an automated message that there was "high call volume," according to the audio reviewed by USA TODAY.
"Sir, my daughter goes to the school next door to Apalachee. Is there a school shooter?" one caller said.
"We do have an active situation at Apalachee High School right now. We have a lot of calls coming in and we do have units on scene," a 911 operator responded.
Authorities also released audio of communications between officers on the scene as they cleared classrooms and discovered injured and deceased victims. In one recording, an officer describes applying a tourniquet to an injured female victim. "She's gonna need to get out of here pretty quick," he says.
Barrow County officials told USA TODAY that some 911 calls are exempt from being disclosed as public records if they contain the voice or cries of children.
"What is going on at the high school, at Apalachee High School," one man asked a 911 operator who said she could not confirm any information. "My son just texted me. He's a student in there right now, he says people are dying."
A man told a 911 operator that his daughter worked as a school psychologist at Apalachee and was working with a student in a trailer "next to where the shooting was happening." The man said his daughter tried to hide behind a desk with the student but "she’s upset because she can’t get the door locked."
"I want them to be aware that she’s in a trailer and she can’t lock the door and if they can check on the trailers... hopefully they can check it and get her out," he said.
NEW DETAILS REVEALED:Apalachee High School suspect kept gun in backpack, hid in bathroom, officials say
Over an hour after the shooting started, one call came from a woman who identified herself as Gray's aunt and said she was calling from Florida.
“My mom just called me and said that Colt texted his mom – my sister – and his dad that he was sorry, and they called the school and told the counselor to go get him immediately,” the woman said through tears. “She said she saw that there’s been a shooting, and I’m just worried it was him.”
According to an earlier report from The Washington Post, the teen's mother told her sister that she called the school half an hour before the shooting began and said there was an "extreme emergency" with her son.
Gray is being charged with murder for the deaths of students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, and teachers Ricky Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53. Eight other students and one teacher were injured. Gray's father, Colin Gray, also faces charges of involuntary manslaughter, second-degree murder and cruelty to children.
The release of the 911 calls comes amid ongoing services for some of the victims planned for Saturday.
A memorial service for Mason Schermerhorn, a ninth grader who "loved Disney World and LEGOs," was scheduled for Saturday afternoon at a civic center and attendees were asked to wear his favorite color, red. Cristina Irimie, a math teacher and pillar of her tight-knit Romanian Orthodox community, is set to be remembered at a separate service in the afternoon.
veryGood! (658)
Related
- Ryan Reynolds Clarifies Taylor Swift’s Role as Godmother to His Kids With Blake Lively
- Christie's cancels sale of late Austrian billionaire Heidi Horten's jewelry over Nazi links
- Burning Man flooding: What happened to stranded festivalgoers?
- Coco Gauff reaches US Open quarterfinals after ousting former No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki
- Police identify 7-year-old child killed in North Carolina weekend shooting
- Insider Q&A: Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic foresees interest rates staying higher for longer
- Reshaped Death Valley park could take months to reopen after damage from Hilary
- From Ariana Grande to Britney Spears, Pour One Out for the Celebrities Who Had Breakups This Summer
- Zendaya Shares When She Feels Extra Safe With Boyfriend Tom Holland
- Every Time Nick Lachey and Vanessa Lachey Dropped a Candid Confession
Ranking
- Volkswagen, Mazda, Honda, BMW, Porsche among 304k vehicles recalled: Check car recalls here
- Some businesses in Vermont's flood-wracked capital city reopen
- Biden and Trump are keeping relatively light campaign schedules as their rivals rack up the stops
- Georgia father to be charged with murder after body of 2-year-old found in trash
- Watch: Military dad's emotional return after a year away
- Jimmy Buffett's cause of death revealed to be Merkel cell cancer, a rare form of skin cancer
- Olivia Rodrigo Responds to Theory That Vampire Song Is About Taylor Swift
- Four-man Space X Crew Dragon spacecraft wraps up six-month stay in orbit
Recommendation
-
In bizarro world, Tennessee plays better defense, and Georgia's Kirby Smart comes unglued
-
LGBTQ pride group excluded from southwest Iowa town’s Labor Day parade
-
Biden and Trump are keeping relatively light campaign schedules as their rivals rack up the stops
-
Remains of Tuskegee pilot who went missing during WWII identified after 79 years
-
Watch a rescuer’s cat-like reflexes pluck a kitten from mid-air after a scary fall
-
Georgia football staffer Jarvis Jones arrested for speeding, reckless driving
-
Bodycam footage shows fatal shooting of pregnant Black woman by Ohio police
-
You're Invited to See The Crown's Season 6 Teaser About King Charles and Queen Camilla's Wedding