Gunfire Audible On Newtown 911 Logging Tapes

After an extended legal debate over privacy and decency, the city of Newtown (Conn.) has released the logging tapes for seven 911 calls made by staffers at Sandy Hook Elementary School during the shooting that claimed 20 children and six teachers and staff. The calls are at once heart-wrenching and dramatic, as the callers plead for help with gunfire audible in the background, and dispatchers working to gather information and give the callers safety advice. Overall, the tapes confirm that the school staff and dispatchers worked professionally and diligently to expedite a public safety response to the shooting. “There’s still shooting going on, please!” custodian Rick Thorne said during his call to a Newtown police department dispatcher. During another call, an unnamed female caller told a dispatcher someone was running down the hallway. “Oh, they’re still running and still shooting. Sandy Hook School, please!” On one tape a Newtown dispatcher attempted to call the state police four times, but no one answered until the last call. Within days of the shooting last December the Associated Press filed requests for the logging tapes, but a state prosecutor denied the request since the investigation was on-going. The suspect killed himself, essentially ending any criminal investigation, so the AP later appealed the decision to the state’s Freedom of Information Commission. The commission ruled the city must release the tapes, but the state prosecutor continued to resist, saying it would violate the privacy of those wounded and the families of victims. Last week a state judge dismissed the prosecutor’s appeal to the commission’s ruling. Superior Court Judge Eliot Prescott wrote, “Release of the audio recordings will also allow the public to consider and weigh what improvements, if any, should be made to law enforcement’s response to such incidents.” Earlier this week the prosecutor dropped his objections, and this morning the city released the tapes. The tapes of wireless 911 calls routed to the state police are still the subject of a court appeal. Listen to all six calls here, and read an early transcript (pdf) of the calls. [Warning—The audio is graphic and emotional, but is representative of the types of telephone calls that public safety dispatchers must and do handle frequently, and must be prepared to handle.]