Audio from FBI shooting: ‘Send backup now!’
A woman huddles in the bathroom with her daughter and dog, frantically calling 911 as shots ring out. She thinks she might faint, she tells the dispatcher.
Another woman shouts at the 911 dispatcher: “You guys need to send backup now! These people are killing out here!”
The pleas are included in 911 audio released Tuesday by the Broward Sheriff’s Office, giving testament to the bedlam and chaos of the events that occurred early on Feb. 2, when two FBI agents were killed in Sunrise and three others wounded by David Lee
Huber, a suspect in a federal child pornography investigation.
For the FBI, it was the deadliest day for their agency since 9/11. But for residents, it was a terrifying wake-up call. Police records released along with the audio show that at least two people, a couple, were evacuated from their apartment.
“I’m sleeping and I’m just hearing ‘boom boom boom,’ and then I popped up and I’m hearing again ‘boom boom boom boom,’ and we don’t know where it’s coming,” one woman tells a dispatcher, exhaustion evident in her voice.
One woman said she could see a police officer running through the
Water Terrace Apartment Complex where Huber lived. Yelling is clear in the background of her recording.
“Some maniac must be over there,” she says to the dispatcher. “Oh my God, what is going on out here? This is a quiet neighborhood. Oh my God.”
Several 911 callers couldn’t pinpoint exactly where the gunfire was erupting, but they described a hail of gunfire.
One said the shots came from the apartment complex behind hers. How many gunshots? a dispatcher asked. ““Oh my God … I can’t even tell you. It’s just rounds and rounds of bullets,” she replied.
Another fearful resident told 911 that the gunfire seemed to be right outside his door. He told his girlfriend to take the dog and hide in the bathroom.
“We’re inside the apartment,” he told the dispatcher. “We just hear it. Pow, pow, pow … bunch of gunshots out there.”
When the shooting stopped, FBI agents Laura Schwartzenberger and Daniel Alfin were dead. Two other agents were hospitalized with bullet wounds, and a third had been treated for bullet wounds on the scene. The shooter also was dead.
Dispatch records flesh out the timeline surrounding the events. Although sections of the report were withheld for investigative purposes, the reports show police frantically trying to respond to the incident.
“Bring the Bear Cat to the entrance” an operator says at 6:11 am, seven minutes after the first reports of shots fired. A bear cat is a armored vehicle used by SWAT teams in the region.
“Need a team with a bear cat” an operator relays to the wider communications network some 30 seconds afterward.
It’s unclear when the armored vehicle arrives. Photographs from the scene show that it was driven into Huber’s apartment, possibly in an attempt to rescue the two fallen FBI agents.
At 6:29 am, 25 minutes after the first call, an operator announces: “Do not fire towards the front. They are going to let in smoke.”
It’s not clear when the responding police departments managed to retrieve the bodies of the fallen FBI agents. At 7:05 AM, the stand-off with Huber continued, according to the dispatch report.
“No windows breached. Suspect still possibly contained inside,” it says.