Dispatcher Recalls Call That Reported Horrors

“You can’t handle the call right if you think about it in real time,” advises Glynn-Brunswick 911 Center (Geo.) dispatcher Leanne Viola, after handling a 911 call that reported the murders of eight people last month. “I just thought about what I had to do to get help out there to them,” Viola told a reporter this week as she recalled the incident. Viola said she lowered her voice, a technique she learned to help lower the panic of callers, in this case Guy Heinze Jr., who has since been arrested for the murders of family members, including a toddler. Viola said she and others participated in debriefing to cope with the stress. She also said she was prohibited from talking about whether she considered Heinze Jr. a suspect at the time. Read the entire interview and listen to her handling of the 911 call here.