iStock/Thinkstock(SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.) — Audio of 911 calls received during Monday’s fatal school shooting in San Bernardino, California, capture the panic and fear in the caller’s voice moments after shots were fired.
The San Bernardino Police Department released the chilling recordings Friday, days after an 8-year-old boy and his teacher were killed by a gunman at North Park Elementary School.
In the phone call placed to police, a woman is heard notifying authorities about an “active shooter.”
“We have an active shooter in North Park Elementary,” the caller says in a frightened voice. “One of our teachers was shot.”
The 911 responder urges the woman not to hang up and to “hold on” as she transfers the call to school district police. The woman then repeats the emergency with further alarm when speaking to school district police.
“We have an active shooter. One of our teachers got shot in the classroom,” the caller says. “Please hurry.”
School district police ask the caller for a description of the shooter.
“He’s a black male. He’s our — Mrs. Smith’s husband,” the caller says, breathing heavily. “He was wearing a beige blazer.”
The caller, who is not identified, notifies police that the victim is located in Smith’s classroom. School district police then ask the woman, “Is the guy still on the campus right now?”
“As far as I know he is. I’m scared, I’m in the office,” the caller says.
The San Bernardino Police Department also released the recording of an emergency dispatcher notifying authorities that there were “units in route to the shooting.”
“We have a possible suspect: black, male adult, bald, black shirt,” the dispatcher says. “Looks like it’s possibly a husband of the employee. It’s going to be in classroom Baker 1. B-1.
The gunman has been identified as Riverside resident Cedric Anderson, who went to North Park Elementary School on Monday morning armed with a .357 revolver and opened fire on his wife, Karen Elaine Smith, according to San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan.
Anderson and Smith, both 53, were found dead in a classroom that serves special-needs students. Anderson entered the classroom “without saying anything” before he opened fire and then turned the gun on himself, Burguan said. There were 15 students and two aides in the classroom at the time, the police chief added.
Two male students, who were injured as Anderson fired at his wife, were transported to hospitals for treatment. One of them, 8-year-old Jonathan Martinez, later died from his injuries after being airlifted to Loma Linda University Medical Center, Burguan said.
Jonathan had Williams syndrome, a rare developmental disorder that affects many parts of the body, according to San Bernardino Unified School District Superintendent Dale Marsden.
The other student, a 9-year-old, is hospitalized in stable condition. He sustained a single gunshot wound to his upper body, Burguan said at a news conference Monday, declining to further discuss the boy’s condition.
The students were not targeted but were standing behind Smith when her estranged husband opened fire, Burguan added.
The investigation into the shooting is ongoing.
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