Tops worker says 911 dispatcher hung up on her during shooting. The dispatcher is now on leave

[sarisataka]

Tops worker says 911 dispatcher hung up on her during shooting. The dispatcher is now on leave

As she laid on the floor, behind the customer service counter where she hid while a white supremacist was actively shooting inside the Tops supermarket, she dialed 911.

Latisha, an assistant office manager at the Jefferson Avenue store who wished to provide only her first name, whispered into the phone with the dispatcher, hoping to remain unnoticed by the shooter but wanting to alert police to the tragedy that was unfolding.

"She was yelling at me, saying, 'Why are you whispering? You don't have to whisper,'" Latisha said, "and I was telling her, 'Ma'am, he's still in the store. He's shooting. I'm scared for my life. I don't want him to hear me. Can you please send help?' She got mad at me, hung up in my face." 

Latisha said she then called her boyfriend and told him to call 911. "I felt that lady left me to die yesterday," Latisha told The Buffalo News on Sunday, as she waited for a worship service to start at True Bethel Baptist Church.

https://buffalonews.com/news/local/tops-worker-says-911-dispatcher-hung-up-on-her-during-shooting-the-dispatcher-is-now/article_81722c50-d6b6-11ec-9b8e-978e1bbde2e4.html

"Would you speak up? I can't hear you over all the shooting."

[spooky3]

1. That's horrible. Did they not train dispatchers???

[live love laugh]

32. Training is not a cure all. Some people NEVER get it.

[SYFROYH]

2. Wow. It almost seems criminal for a dispatcher to hang up like that.

[intheflow]

22. It is criminal.

At the very least she should have traced the call and sent a unit. It’s pretty basic that if someone calls 911 and whispers, they’re either scared for their lives or too gravely injured to speak up.

[HipChick]

3. Leave? she needs to be dismissed..

Bravo to Latisha for coming forward

[Ms. Toad]

23. If you click through to the article . . .

Peter Anderson, spokesman for Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz, said "immediate action was taken" with the dispatcher.

He said an internal investigation began Sunday, with the dispatcher placed on administrative leave Monday, pending a disciplinary hearing May 30. Such a disciplinary hearing could result in an employee's termination or other action.

[lpbk2713]

4. What a bozo.

I hope the dispatcher is in a world of shit.

She certainly will be if she is doxxed.

[Duppers]

18. And fired.

[IronLionZion]

5. I can't hear you over all this freedom

since an armed society is a polite society, they need to arm the 911 operators to be more polite.

[Bev54]

6. After listening to many different 911 calls down there, mostly on true crime shows

or on the news after a disaster, I would say the 911 operators need a whole lot more training and empathy testing. I am astounded at some of the stupid things they say to people.

[Permanut]

20. Roger that..

Caller: "Help, my husband has been shot!"

911 Operator: "What's his name?"

Happens over and over.

[PatSeg]

7. Whoa, that is SO disturbing

How callous and cruel.

[AZLD4Candidate]

8. "Don't whisper, damn you terrified person. Speak louder and become a cowering target."

[LiberalFighter]

9. How stupid are people?

The 911 person needs to be on permanent leave.

If a person can't comprehend the type of calls that come in they have no business being there.

[calimary]

14. How 'bout just plain ol' FIRED?

For CAUSE!!!

[DENVERPOPS]

10. It should all be on a recorder at 911 headquarters.....! NC

[IbogaProject]

11. Big cities have overloaded 911 systems

Whereas down in South Jersey near Philadelphia they come out if you call and don't speak. Once they came to my Mom's door, claiming someone called and hung up. I politely said my guess is the elderly neighbors and double check the address they were given. Neighbor was ok, she had just accidentally pushed a panic button on her phone by mistake, hung up and thought that was the end of it.

[ProfessorGAC]

19. Happened To Us

Before my wife had a smartphone, she still used 411 to get numbers.
She once accidently dialed 911.
When they picked up & said "Nine One One", she said "Oh my, i meant to dial 411. I'm so sorry."
The person she understood and they both hung up. 2 minutes later a cop pulled up to the house.
We were both sitting on the deck & saw his cherries flashing above the privacy wall. (We live on a corner.)
So, they sent a cop just to be sure, after a mistake was cordially acknowledged, and in the Tops case, they hung up on her.

[Marthe48]

27. My cat walked across the Life Alert system in my Mom's bedroom

and connected to 911. No one was home, and emergency services came out and broke into the house. Evidently the cat liked hearing peoples' voices, because he went back in the room a couple weeks later and activated the system again. I heard the voices and raced in there yelling, "It's my cat. It's my cat!" And the dispatcher says, "You say you can't walk?" We got it straightened out and then laughed like fools. We moved the equipment so the cat couldn't walk on it again and kept the door shut if we weren't home. I just remembered that happening

I'm glad everyone was okay in the story you told!

[usaf-vet]

12. Seriously, I would think that 911 calls where the caller is whispering would be very common. DANGER?

[Demovictory9]

30. Me too

[calimary]

13. Good Freakin' Grief...

[Blue Owl]

15. Dispatch that dispatcher

[Stuart G]

16. What this really proves, is that there is ..."MORE COMING." We haven't really seen it all..

...Yes, ...MORE...No, I don't know what, all I know is ...MORE......WHY?.....

JUST LOOK BACK IN MY LIFETIME...i WAS BORN IN MID 40s..1946..........What is life now, compared to then?

Think about that if you can then you will understand why........MORE IS COMING!!!!!!!!!!........

Yes, the dispatcher will be fired,..

..but, if you think that this is the end of crazy events , then you got it wrong!!!...YES, THERE WILL BE MORE!!

[malaise]

17. Fire her

[MustLoveBeagles]

21. Fire her

She's in the wrong profession.

[onecaliberal]

24. This person should be immediately fired.

[Meowmee]

25. Hard to believe 😿

Once when I called an ambulance for my father the police showed up first and asked what drugs are you on, while he was in the floor trying not pass out, it was his first afib event years ago. At that point I asked where is the ambulance. Then the ambulance finally show up and an ems tech started telling us and everyone he was just hyperventilating and it was nothing so they brought him to the wrong part of the er, a nurse saw his ekg, said shit, very fast hr and afib etc. and brought him to the critical area.

The last time when they showed up one ems actually said to me what is the reason for bringing him to er, we need a reason, I guess bleeding from a catheter pulled out and numerous other crises weren’t enough which I had already informed them of.

[intheflow]

26. WHY can't we text 911 by now??

Absolutely insane that people fearing for their lives have to give themselves away by speaking aloud to get help. It’s the 21st Century, for gods’ sake!

[sarisataka]

28. You can

911 supports SMS texting in most of the US

[niyad]

33. Thank you. Did not know that.

[kirby]

34. Just be careful...

Not implemented everywhere. Supposedly if it is not implemented, the FCC requires a text 'bounce back' message indicating your text to 911 was not delivered and did not go through.

https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/what-you-need-know-about-text-911

[wnylib]

29. Excellent point.

Imagine the horror of hiding from a shooter and calling for help only to be criticized and cut off.

[intheflow]

31. Well, that's good to learn.

That public safety campaign had a messaging problem. So to speak.

[geardaddy]

35. I wonder if if was race related?