A window into Sunday’s mass shooting opened a bit Thursday, with 911 calls released by the Jacksonville Fire Rescue Division.
The calls capture the chaos as dispatchers responded to the mass shooting. Trauma alerts and sirens can be heard in the background as dispatchers field multiple desperate callers at once.
The calls began just minutes after the shooting started. The victims left The Jacksonville Landing moved to the nearby CSX property and 550 building for safety.
One caller, clearly in agony, begs the dispatcher to send help. “I need someone to hurry up. I’m losing feeling in my leg. I need someone to hurry up.” Moments later he moans in pain. ‘I’ve been shot in my shin, my skin has been ripped off and I’m losing feeling in my shin.”
At one point, he begins to sound panicky. “I need you to hurry up please,” he says. The dispatcher attempts to calm him. “Sir listen, listen -- I need you to take a deep breath, OK? Talking to me will not delay your help.”
“I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m calm,” he responds. After a minute he adds, “I’m not dying, I’m just really hurt right now.”
Another call is from a bystander, who has taken a bleeding victim inside the 550 building for safety. He says he wants to make sure first responders know where to find him.
“He was shot at The Landing, and I saw a lot more ambulances and stuff going that way. …I just don’t want them to forget him, because they are all going that way,” he says.
The victim, he explains, was “shot dead in the ass and it went through.”
The dispatcher instructs him to apply pressure to the wound and asks, “Is he breathing?”
The caller responds, “He’s breathing, but I’m pretty sure in a minute it’s not going to go good for him.”