Current:Home > ScamsBenjamin Ashford|911 calls from Georgia school shooting released -Elevate Profit Vision
Benjamin Ashford|911 calls from Georgia school shooting released
EchoSense View
Date:2025-04-10 09:30:24
Family members of students and Benjamin Ashfordstaff at Apalachee High School called 911 to find out about their loved ones after a mass shooting that left four dead unfolded on Sept. 4, newly released audio reveals.
The 911 call center in Barrow County was inundated after the shooting began at about 10:20 a.m., when authorities say 14-year-old Colt Gray began his rampage. Some callers were met with an automated message that there was "high call volume," according to the audio reviewed by USA TODAY.
"Sir, my daughter goes to the school next door to Apalachee. Is there a school shooter?" one caller said.
"We do have an active situation at Apalachee High School right now. We have a lot of calls coming in and we do have units on scene," a 911 operator responded.
Authorities also released audio of communications between officers on the scene as they cleared classrooms and discovered injured and deceased victims. In one recording, an officer describes applying a tourniquet to an injured female victim. "She's gonna need to get out of here pretty quick," he says.
Barrow County officials told USA TODAY that some 911 calls are exempt from being disclosed as public records if they contain the voice or cries of children.
"What is going on at the high school, at Apalachee High School," one man asked a 911 operator who said she could not confirm any information. "My son just texted me. He's a student in there right now, he says people are dying."
A man told a 911 operator that his daughter worked as a school psychologist at Apalachee and was working with a student in a trailer "next to where the shooting was happening." The man said his daughter tried to hide behind a desk with the student but "she’s upset because she can’t get the door locked."
"I want them to be aware that she’s in a trailer and she can’t lock the door and if they can check on the trailers... hopefully they can check it and get her out," he said.
NEW DETAILS REVEALED:Apalachee High School suspect kept gun in backpack, hid in bathroom, officials say
Over an hour after the shooting started, one call came from a woman who identified herself as Gray's aunt and said she was calling from Florida.
“My mom just called me and said that Colt texted his mom – my sister – and his dad that he was sorry, and they called the school and told the counselor to go get him immediately,” the woman said through tears. “She said she saw that there’s been a shooting, and I’m just worried it was him.”
According to an earlier report from The Washington Post, the teen's mother told her sister that she called the school half an hour before the shooting began and said there was an "extreme emergency" with her son.
Gray is being charged with murder for the deaths of students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, and teachers Ricky Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53. Eight other students and one teacher were injured. Gray's father, Colin Gray, also faces charges of involuntary manslaughter, second-degree murder and cruelty to children.
The release of the 911 calls comes amid ongoing services for some of the victims planned for Saturday.
A memorial service for Mason Schermerhorn, a ninth grader who "loved Disney World and LEGOs," was scheduled for Saturday afternoon at a civic center and attendees were asked to wear his favorite color, red. Cristina Irimie, a math teacher and pillar of her tight-knit Romanian Orthodox community, is set to be remembered at a separate service in the afternoon.
veryGood! (96)
Related
- Retirement planning: 3 crucial moves everyone should make before 2025
- NY man pleads guilty in pandemic loan fraud
- Nikki Garcia Ditches Wedding Ring in First Outing Since Artem Chigvintsev's Domestic Violence Arrest
- ESPN networks, ABC and Disney channels go dark on DirecTV on a busy night for sports
- Meet first time Grammy nominee Charley Crockett
- Mets pitcher Sean Manaea finally set for free agent payday
- How to know if your kid is having 'fun' in sports? Andre Agassi has advice
- Federal workers around nation’s capital worry over Trump’s plans to send some of them elsewhere
- Warm inflation data keep S&P 500, Dow, Nasdaq under wraps before Fed meeting next week
- What restaurants are open on Labor Day? Hours and details for McDonald's, Chick-fil-A, more
Ranking
- New Mexico governor seeks funding to recycle fracking water, expand preschool, treat mental health
- California lawmakers pass ambitious bills to atone for legacy of racism against Black residents
- Meet Bluestockings Cooperative, a 'niche of queer radical bookselling' in New York
- Pilot declared emergency, loss of autopilot before crash that killed 3 members of famed gospel group
- Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow owns a $3 million Batmobile Tumbler
- It Ends With Us’ Justin Baldoni Shares Moving Message to Domestic Abuse Survivors
- Thousands of US hotel workers strike over Labor Day weekend
- Who Coco Gauff, Iga Swiatek play in US Open fourth round, and other must-watch matches
Recommendation
How to watch the 'Blue Bloods' Season 14 finale: Final episode premiere date, cast
Are grocery stores open Labor Day 2024? Hours and details for Costco, Kroger, Publix, Aldi, more
Woody Marks’ TD run with 8 seconds left gives No. 23 USC 27-20 win over No. 13 LSU
Youth football safety debate is rekindled by the same-day deaths of 2 young players
Federal hiring is about to get the Trump treatment
Gen Z wants an inheritance. Good luck with that, say their boomer parents
Linda Deutsch, AP trial writer who had front row to courtroom history, dies at 80
Small plane carrying at least 2 people crashes into townhomes near Portland, engulfs home in flames