Las Vegas police have released more than 500 emergency calls from the October 2017 massacre that claimed 58 lives.
According to KSNV, gunfire can be heard in some of the 518 emergency 911 calls that were made public on Wednesday. One of the first calls placed was placed by Mandalay Bay security after Jesus Campos was wounded by Stephen Paddock while approaching his hotel room on the 32nd floor.
Security later told police that they called 911, and that they were placed on hold for two to five agonizing minutes.
Other calls provided a glimpse into the panic and confusion that was unfolding on the ground, as Route 91 concertgoers realized they were under attack. The Los Angeles Times reported that many of the callers appeared distracted as bullets rained down on them.
“Do you need police, fire or medical?” the dispatcher asks in one call. “Hello? This is 911. Hello? This is 911. Hello? Hello, this is 911. Hello?”
“No!” a voice screams back. “No! No! No! No! No!”
Another voice can be heard saying in the background, “Try to stay with us,” before the call ends abruptly.
CNN reported that one concertgoer who called 911 amid the carnage described how at least 100 people were on the ground bleeding out. He said one of the injured was his best friend, who was shot in the stomach. Another person was shot in the leg.
“The whole concert is down on the ground,” he hollers. “Just send everybody.”
“Please hurry up.”
Dispatchers were flooded with hundreds of calls from the country music festival attended by 22,000 people. Emergency services were so inundated with calls amid the 11-minute shooting that one 911 operator reportedly tells another that they have 33 people on hold while they tried to get one women’s attention.
“I don’t know what to do,” a panicked woman tells a dispatcher who asks if she knows where the gunfire is coming from.
She goes on to explain that someone is telling her to move. After some brief confusion, she says the person isn’t a police officer. The dispatcher instructs her to get to safety.
“I don’t know where we’re supposed to go,” she says.
“I don’t know what we’re supposed to do.”
[Featured image: Associated Press]
