After allegedly hanging up on a Tops supermarket employee during Saturday’s shooting rampage in Buffalo, New York, where a teenager clad in military-style tactical gear killed 10 people. A 911 dispatcher has been placed on administrative leave and will most likely be fired.
Latisha Rogers, an assistant office manager at Tops, said she called 911 and whispered into the phone about the shooter, who was already inside the store.
“I called 911, I go through the whole operator and everything, the dispatcher comes on and I’m whispering to her and I said ‘Miss, please send help to 1275 Jefferson – there is a shooter in the store,’” Rogers told WGRZ.
“She proceeded in a very nasty tone and says, ‘I can’t hear you, why are you whispering? You don’t have to whisper, they can’t hear you.’ So I continued to whisper and I said ‘Ma’am he’s still in the store, he’s still shooting! I’m scared for my life, please send help!’ Out of nervousness, my phone fell out of my hand, she said something I couldn’t make out, and then the phone hung up,” Rogers said.
Latisha told the paper she had to phone her boyfriend and have him call 911 to report the shooting. It is not yet clear who hung up first.
“I felt that lady left me to die yesterday,” Latisha told The Buffalo News.
The dispatcher allegedly shouted at a whispering supermarket employee who called 911 and hung up on her. https://t.co/aDpOuq2ukQ
— 6 News WOWT (@WOWT6News) May 19, 2022
A spokesperson for Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said “Termination will be sought” at a disciplinary hearing scheduled for May 30.
“The individual was put on administrative leave pending a hearing which will be held on May 30 in which our intention is to terminate the 911 call taker, who acted totally inappropriately not following protocol,” Poloncarz said.
“Our intention is to terminate the 911 call taker who acted totally inappropriately, not following protocol,” he said. “We teach our 911 call takers that if somebody’s whispering, it probably means they are in trouble.”
He did not publicly identify the dispatcher, who has been on the job for eight years.
According to Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn, the mass shooting is being investigated as a “domestic terrorism incident” and a hate crime attack. Payton S. Gendron, a white man, is accused of “targeting innocent people who were shopping for groceries on a Saturday afternoon.”
In a report by the Associated Press, Gendron is accused of fatally shooting ten Black people while they were shopping for groceries or working at a supermarket. The shooting was live-streamed on social media.
Sources: Dailywire, Conservativenewsdaily, Buffalonews
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