Recordings of 911 calls from the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting show town dispatchers calmly responding to a janitor, a teacher, and others and assuring them help was on its way.
The operators urge the people inside the school to take cover as they reach out to town officials and state police for help. The operators also ask about the welfare of the children.
A gunman shot his way into the school on the morning of Dec. 14 and killed 20 children and six educators with a semi-automatic rifle. He committed suicide as police arrived.
The calls to Newtown police were posted Wednesday on a town website. A court ordered the release of the tapes last week, despite the objections of prosecutors, after a legal challenge by The Associated Press.
The Associated Press waged a year-long battle to get the 911 recordings released. The release of the recordings comes after a state prosecutor’s report that closed the case last week. That report included a timeline of events, which showed the first police officer arrived at the school within four minutes of the first 911 call, and officers entered the school about six minutes later. The 20-year-old shooter, Adam Lanza, shot and killed himself within one minute of the first police officer arriving at the scene.
Click here to listen to the audio uploaded by the New Haven Register.
Click here to continue reading the New Haven Register and Associated Press report.