New 911 calls released in shooting

Students, teachers, parents dialed 115 times as terror and bloodshed reigned

Recordings of the anxious, heartbreaking moments between 911 dispatchers and Stoneman Douglas’ students and teachers were released Wednesday, providing one of the most troubling accounts yet of what happened that day.

A student in Room 1216 tells the dispatcher that they’re in the freshmen building. She describes what she sees.

“There’s holes in the wall,” the student says. “There are a lot of people around us who are injured, people are bleeding.” She identifies where the shooter is, based on the gunfire.

“Please, he’s upstairs now,” she says. “Please, oh my God.”

The call was one of 115 to Coral Springs from students, teachers and parents between 2 and 4 p.m. on Valentine’s Day, the day former student Nikolas Cruz killed 17 students and educators and wounded 17 others in a six-minute shooting spree.

The student in Room 1216 reported that three classmates were shot in her classroom at 2:22 p.m., a minute after authorities say Cruz entered the 1200 building.

“Please, please, there are people here. They are all bleeding. They are going to die,” the student tells the dispatcher. She asks someone in her class. “Is he dead, is he dead?” “There’s a kid, I think he’s dead,” she cries to the dispatcher. “Stay on the phone,” the dispatcher says. “We have lots of help on the way, OK?” “Please, he’s dead.”

The girl says she is willing to try CPR. But she’s in hiding, and her teacher tells her not to move.

The dispatcher urges her to climb into a closet to hide, but the closets are on the other side of the room.

“Make sure nobody in your class moves an inch, got it?” “He’s got blood dripping down his arms,” the girl says as she tries to explain that her “neighbor” is among the wounded. Then “is he still breathing?” asks the dispatcher. “I can’t tell,” the student says.

Douglas students will be processing their trauma for some time to come, said Holly Goller, a psychologist who practices in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. Being able to call a dispatcher may have been beneficial – on many levels — for those who could, she said.

“It’s reaching out to someone in the external world, which tends to reduce that sense of hopelessness and helplessness that many people experience in these situations,” Goller said. “There is always the potential for negative effects but, more often than not, the research shows that people become more resilient.” In classroom, 1216, everyone dropped to the floor. As a schoolteacher’s 911 call goes through to the dispatcher, she whispers urgently to her students.

She wants them to stay safe, crouching down under her desk in the corner of the classroom.

“Please stay down, please stay down,” she says. “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.” She repeatedly says, “Just stay down.”

The Broward Sheriff ’s Office also released a batch of calls Wednesday, mainly from people with loved ones who were hiding from the gunman at the school. The agency has dozens of other calls it has not made public.

Calls made to 911 on cellphones in Parkland are dispatched to Coral Springs operators. It’s set up that way because most calls for help are for medical emergencies, and Coral Springs paramedics serve Parkland.

Some of the callers panicked as they heard someone approaching their classroom.

“They’re coming in!” a student cried. “They’re coming in!” The dispatcher asked who’s approaching. “The police or the shooter?”

It was the police, the student realized. The student wails as she sees some classmates.

“Oh my God, they’re dead,” she said.

She urges the dispatcher to send help. “There’s gunshots,” she says. “Please come.”

The dispatcher asks, “Have you guys gotten training for active shooter?” “Um, no, not really,” the teacher replies.

She said the door was locked but a male student was shot.

The teacher speaks in a low, urgent voice, repeatedly saying that “it” went through the door. The dispatcher clarifies, “the bullet went through the door?” “Yes, I have a student down,” the teacher says. “I have a student down.”

The wounded student isn’t breathing.

“It happened so fast,” she says.

From inside the classroom, they could not see the gunman. The teacher said she thought she had about 24 students hiding in the corner of the classroom with her.

“With the one student down, it’s 25.”

As the dispatcher keeps trying to calm her, the teacher again whispers forcefully to her students.

“Stay down. Stay down. Oh my God.”

The dispatcher asks about the wounded student, who is leaned over his desk.

“There’s blood all over,” the teacher says. “He got shot in the chest.” “There’s smoke all in my room. My window and my door is shot in.”

About 4 minutes and 45 seconds into the call, the teacher can be overheard asking another student: “Are you hit?”

“I have another student hit,” the teacher tells the dispatcher.

The 911 calls continued.

“They were shooting into my classroom,” a girl from Room 1214 tells a dispatcher, adding that someone in the classroom has blood on their face. “He shot the window in.” A teacher calls for help on another call: “I have a class full of students.” “A lot of blood, please help,” a girl cries. “Please, it’s real. Please help.”

Then the line goes dead.