The 911 calls the Newtown, Conn. police department received during the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on Dec. 14, 2012 reveal how teachers and other school staff tried to stay calm even in the middle of a crisis.
The tapes were only released Wednesday, nearly a year after the shootings, following an Associated Press request for them to be made public, reports CNN. A state attorney wanted to block the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission's ruling last week that the recordings be released, but a judge upheld the decision. However, the group of recordings do not include the 911 calls the state police responded to in Litchfield.
According to The New York Times, the first call lasted just 24 seconds and is of a woman who says “Sandy Hook School, I think there is someone shooting in here, Sandy Hook School.”
In another, a teacher can be heard staying remarkably calm as she tells the operator what is happening. “It sounds like there are gunshots in the hallway,” she says. “The door isn’t locked...I have to go lock the door.”
There’s another call from a custodian who stays on the phone almost during the entire shooting, which lasted six minutes. Another woman calls to say she was shot in the foot and the operator assures her that emergency responders are on their way.
The recordings were released after a lengthy report was released, which shows that authorities are still not sure what drove 20-year-old Adam Lanza to open fire at the school. Twenty children and six adults died during the shooting before Lanza turned a gun on himself.
image: Wikimedia Commons
