911 calls detail horror of Parkland shooting

Police in Parkland, Fla., on Thursday released recordings of frantic 911 calls received as a shooter rampaged through a local high school last month, leaving 17 dead.

The Broward County Sheriff’s Office released 10 of the 81 calls to its emergency response center from that day, as well as 12 minutes of radio transmissions obtained by The Associated Press between deputies as they tried to assess the situation.

The 911 center received its first call 68 seconds into the six minutes that 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz allegedly stormed through the halls of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School freshman center.

Emergency dispatchers at the call center gradually came to make sense of the influx of calls, from both students hiding within the school and parents of students who had sent them dire messages as the shooting began. Call center operators then began instructing the students on how to take cover.

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The calls also detail the response efforts by deputies, aided by a timeline of events provided by Sheriff Scott Israel. The deputies arrived two minutes after the first 911 call but did not enter the building until five minutes after the shooter had fled the scene, more than 11 minutes after the shooting began.

The armed deputy stationed on the school grounds initially thought the sounds of gunfire were firecrackers going off before recognizing them as “possible shots fired.” He still did not enter the building. 

“Be advised we have possible, could be firecrackers, I think we have shots fired, possible shots fired,” said one Broward County deputy when four arrived on the scene. He remained outside the building for several minutes, set up a perimeter of deputies around the school and didn’t enter the building. The deputy in question later resigned after Israel said he should have gone into the building.

The police and FBI had received numerous calls about behavior by the accused shooter in previous years, but Cruz never committed any crimes before his killing spree.

One hour and 13 minutes after the shooter left the building, Cruz was seen walking along a street and arrested by a Coconut Creek police officer.