Updated Dec. 4, 2013 3:57 p.m. ET
As a gunman attacked Sandy Hook Elementary School last year, staff members inside relayed their mounting horror to police dispatchers who calmly urged them to take cover and protect the students, according to emergency recordings released Wednesday.
The seven calls totaling about 25 minutes produced little new information on the assault Dec. 14 that took the lives of 20 students, six staff members and the shooter, except to serve as a fragmentary, moment-by-moment record of the shooting that stunned the nation and set off fierce political debate about gun violence.
In this Dec. 14, 2012, file photo provided by the Newtown Bee, a police officer leads two women and a child from Sandy Hook Elementary School. Associated Press
The release of the tapes concluded a months-long legal dispute between the Newtown Police Department and the news media, which had been seeking the recordings stemming from the response to the shooting.
State's Attorney for the Danbury Judicial District Stephen Sedensky said during the court battle that the 911 tapes were excluded from Connecticut's Freedom of Information Act, arguing that calls were confidential records of child abuse. A Connecticut judge ordered the tapes' release Nov. 26.
"Release of the audio recordings will assist the public in gauging the appropriateness of law enforcement's response to calls from help from the public," Judge Eliot Prescott wrote in his decision. "In fact, public analysis of the recordings may serve to vindicate and support the professionalism and bravery of the first responders on December 14, 2012."
The recorded calls include those made by a teacher, a custodian and another adult who said she was inside the school
"I think there's somebody shooting in here in Sandy Hook School," a caller inside the school tells emergency dispatchers.
"What makes you think that?" replied the dispatcher.
"Somebody's got a gun. I saw a glimpse of somebody running down the hallway. They're still around me," said the caller, who spoke quietly. "There's still shooting. Sandy Hook School, please."
About half the recordings center on dispatchers' interactions with a school custodian who stayed on the line to tell officials what he was seeing and hearing.
"I believe there's shooting at the front, at the front glass. Something's going on," said the custodian.
"I want you to stay on the line with me. Where are you in the school?" replied the dispatcher.
"I'm down the corridor," the custodian said.
"All right I want you to take cover," the dispatcher said.
At one point, a series of what sound like gun shots can be heard in the background.
A teacher called and said she was in a classroom with students.
"Do you have everyone in the classroom and the door locked?" the dispatcher asked.
"All of my students," the teacher replied. "The door is not locked yet I could go lock the door."
"Lock the door keep everyone down, keep everyone calm, get everyone away from the windows," the dispatcher said.
"Yes ok," the teacher said.
The release of the emergency recordings came a week after Mr. Sedensky's office released a report that said shooter Adam Lanza's motive in the killings may never be known.
The first emergency call was made at 9:35 a.m., according to the report. At 9:39 a.m., the first officers arrived at the school. At 9:40 a.m., a final round was fired, which was believed to be shooter Mr. Lanza's suicide shot.
Write to Joseph De Avila at [email protected]
As a gunman attacked Sandy Hook Elementary School last year, staff members inside relayed their mounting horror to police dispatchers who calmly urged them to take cover and protect the students, according to emergency recordings released Wednesday.
The seven calls totaling about 25 minutes produced little new information on the assault Dec. 14 that took the lives of 20 students, six staff members and the shooter, except to serve as a fragmentary, moment-by-moment record of the shooting that stunned the nation and set off fierce political debate about gun violence.
In this Dec. 14, 2012, file photo provided by the Newtown Bee, a police officer leads two women and a child from Sandy Hook Elementary School. Associated Press
The release of the tapes concluded a months-long legal dispute between the Newtown Police Department and the news media, which had been seeking the recordings stemming from the response to the shooting.
State's Attorney for the Danbury Judicial District Stephen Sedensky said during the court battle that the 911 tapes were excluded from Connecticut's Freedom of Information Act, arguing that calls were confidential records of child abuse. A Connecticut judge ordered the tapes' release Nov. 26.
"Release of the audio recordings will assist the public in gauging the appropriateness of law enforcement's response to calls from help from the public," Judge Eliot Prescott wrote in his decision. "In fact, public analysis of the recordings may serve to vindicate and support the professionalism and bravery of the first responders on December 14, 2012."
The recorded calls include those made by a teacher, a custodian and another adult who said she was inside the school
"I think there's somebody shooting in here in Sandy Hook School," a caller inside the school tells emergency dispatchers.
"What makes you think that?" replied the dispatcher.
"Somebody's got a gun. I saw a glimpse of somebody running down the hallway. They're still around me," said the caller, who spoke quietly. "There's still shooting. Sandy Hook School, please."
About half the recordings center on dispatchers' interactions with a school custodian who stayed on the line to tell officials what he was seeing and hearing.
"I believe there's shooting at the front, at the front glass. Something's going on," said the custodian.
"I want you to stay on the line with me. Where are you in the school?" replied the dispatcher.
"I'm down the corridor," the custodian said.
"All right I want you to take cover," the dispatcher said.
At one point, a series of what sound like gun shots can be heard in the background.
A teacher called and said she was in a classroom with students.
"Do you have everyone in the classroom and the door locked?" the dispatcher asked.
"All of my students," the teacher replied. "The door is not locked yet I could go lock the door."
"Lock the door keep everyone down, keep everyone calm, get everyone away from the windows," the dispatcher said.
"Yes ok," the teacher said.
The release of the emergency recordings came a week after Mr. Sedensky's office released a report that said shooter Adam Lanza's motive in the killings may never be known.
The first emergency call was made at 9:35 a.m., according to the report. At 9:39 a.m., the first officers arrived at the school. At 9:40 a.m., a final round was fired, which was believed to be shooter Mr. Lanza's suicide shot.
Write to Joseph De Avila at [email protected]