Echoes of terror ring in 911 calls

BSO releases some phone records from afternoon siege at school

“Please help me,” a terrified student texted to her sister’s fiance, who was on the line with 911. “He’s here.”

Her desperate plea came as the sound of gunfire overtook the 1200 building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

“Shot, shot, shot … Mom. God,” another student texted to his mother, who also called 911.

Two more petrified students hid by themselves in a classroom, crouched beneath a window, according to a recording of a 911 call made during the Feb. 14 mass shooting at the Parkland school.

“She’s terrified right now,” the caller told the dispatcher. “She’s afraid to talk, they’re hiding right

now.”

The caller was on the line with a mother who was talking by cellphone to one of her two daughters at the school.

“Be quiet, be quiet, keep the phone line open,“the dispatcher warned. “Don’t move. Just stay hidden.”

These were among the 81 calls pouring into the Broward Sheriff’s Office from 2:22 p.m. to 3:35 p.m.

“Someone’s shooting up the school at Stoneman Douglas.” Caller to 911 dispatcher

“It sounded like possible shots ... five or six in two different bursts.”

911 dispatcher

The agency on Thursday afternoon released recordings of 10 of the calls.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, a former student at the school, has admitted to carrying out the shooting that killed 17 students and faculty and wounded 17 others.

A Broward County grand jury this week indicted Cruz on 17 counts of firstdegree murder and 17 counts of attempted firstdegree murder. He has an arraignment hearing scheduled Wednesday.

Only one of the released calls has been identified as coming from within the building, that of someone whispering someone was shooting in the school.

“Someone’s shooting up the school at Stoneman Douglas,” the caller whispered.

Heavy breathing and inaudible whispering followed. The dispatcher repeatedly asked the caller to repeat himself.

“Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is being shot up,” he said before the line went dead.

Another student told her mother she was hiding behind a desk when a bullet shattered the glass in the classroom door. It was the girl’s birthday.

While her distraught mother was on the line with a dispatcher, news reports about the shooting began to air on television.

“Oh my gosh, there’s somebody on a stretcher,” the mother said. “Oh, they have their guns drawn … There were three shot in her room. Oh my God! Oh my God!”

A dispatcher in Coral Springs called to relay information from a girl in the school.

“It sounded like possible shots in the background,” he said. “I think I heard five or six in two different bursts.” He quickly followed up to say he got another call from someone advising that “someone was shot in the 1200 building.”

One of the recordings captured a woman telling a student: “I love you! I love you! It's going to be fine. Can you hide somewhere? Can you play dead? You need to do it. If he shoots, you need to play dead … Tell her to pray. Tell her to pray for strength.”