Hidden in Boiler Room, Immigrants Dial 911

Despite their inexperience with the English language, and their relatively short stay in America, a group of 14 immigrants knew they could dial 911 from a basement boiler room when an intruder began shooting at the American Civic Association in Binghamton (NY) last Friday. The gunman eventually shot and killed 13 students at the center, wounded another four and then killed himself. When the shooting began, a large group of people were practicing their English lessons on the ground floor. Several ran downstairs to escape the gunfire, eventually finding the boiler room and its thick, insulated door to protect them. One person had a cellular phone and–thankfully–there was signal coverage from the room. Teacher Katherine Gruss stayed on the phone through five batteries to give information to a dispatcher and to, finally, receive instructions on their rescue by SWAT teams. Read more about the incident here.

Police say the first 911 call came at 10:30 a.m. from someone whose first language was not English. It took two minutes for dispatchers to determine what was happening. Officers arrived on the scene and surrounded the building at 10:33 a.m. Five minutes later, at 10:38 a.m., the English-speaking receptionist for the association, who had been wounded in the stomach, dialed 911 and gave more information. Officers decided to await the arrival of a full SWAT team before entering. Those personnel arrived at 11:13 a.m. and went inside shortly after.

Police and city officials defend the wait, saying there was no gunfire after the first officers arrived. They also say that no one wounded in the initial shooting, and who died, could have been saved by entering the building earlier.

Police Chief Joseph Zikuski said at a news conference, “All I can tell you is that we did what was expected and was the right thing to do under the circumstances.” Ironically, he said officers heard no gunfire, so decided to wait for assistance. He added that, if the gunman had still been firing shots, his officers would have entered the building immediately.

Police cleared out the ground floor of the association building by 11:27 a.m., bringing out all the injured persons.

At that point, police tried to contact the suspect by dialing his cellular phone, using a number supplied by dispatchers, Zikuski said. Officers believed they heard the phone ringing from the basement, and thermal imaging gear also detected movement in the basement.

What police didn’t know is that several people escaped to the basement, and the ringing phone was actually in the suspect’s car, driven up against the rear door of the association building to prevent the victims’ escape when he started shooting. They also didn’t immediately realize they had already contacted the suspect, carrying him out among the injured and dead on the ground floor.

Police waited for a bomb squad robot from another city, adding about one hour to the process of reaching the people in the basement. Police then had to convince those in hiding in the boiler room that they were really the police and to come outside the room.

Read about how the dispatchers handled the incident here. Watch TV report on the dispatchers’ work here.

Listen to the 911 call from Kay Gruss, a clerk at the school, who herded several people into a basement boiler room for safety. She used five cellular phones to keep contact with dispatchers.