Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Florida police release chilling 911 calls from the Pulse nightclub shooting

A woman mourns as she sits on the ground and takes part in a vigil for the Pulse night club victims following last week's shooting in Orlando, Florida. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office released chilling audio of the 911 calls from inside the Pulse Nightclub shooting.

The calls, which were released on Tuesday, are the first to be made public.

It comes nearly three months after the Orlando massacre in which shooter Omar Mateen killed 49 people and injured 53. Police killed Mateen after he took hostages during a three-hour standoff inside the nightclub.

In the audio, terrified callers relay information to emergency dispatchers.

Many of the calls were from people who were not at the club, but calling 911 on behalf of loved ones believed to be inside.

“I understand. We are in the club. We are searching for everybody. We’re pulling victims out,” a dispatcher told a woman calling about her brother, who was at the club, around 2:43 a.m. “We’re still on scene. It’s actively being worked, ma'am. Listen, please be patient. It’s going to take a while before we figure out where everybody’s at.”

Some callers were frustrated after calling multiple times and seeming to get little information from the scene:

Dispatcher: “911, what’s the location of your emergency?”

Caller: “Pulse nightclub. My girlfriend’s in the bathroom. There are now four dead in the bathroom and two shot; they’re bleeding out. If somebody doesn’t get there soon they’re gonna die. This is like the f***ing fifth time I’ve called. This is f***ed up.”

Dispatcher: “We have people there. When did she contact you?”

Caller: “I just finally spoke to her again and there’s nobody in the f***ing nightclub.”

Business Insider reached out to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office for the 911 call files.

These are just some of the calls from that night. The Orlando Police Department hasn’t released its 911 calls yet, and is currently in the middle of a lawsuit centered on that and other public records from the shooting.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office posted a warning on its Facebook page that the calls are graphic and provided numbers for emotional counseling for anyone who needs it:

The Washington Post produced a video with a sampling of the calls:

The New York Daily News uploaded what appears to be most of the calls to SoundCloud:

SEE ALSO: Here’s everything we know about the victims of the Orlando nightclub massacre

DON’T MISS: Justice Department backtracks and releases unredacted transcript of Orlando shooter’s calls to police

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