UPDATE: This article has been updated to include new reporting on the current status of the 911 dispatcher, who has been placed on administrative leave in the wake of Rogers’ allegations, according to Fox News.
A woman who witnessed the deadly shooting in Buffalo, New York, claims that the 911 dispatcher hung up the phone during her attempted call for help, according to local outlet WGRZ.
The dispatcher was placed on administrative leave May 16, Fox News reported. They will undergo a “disciplinary hearing” the week of May 30 when “termination will be sought,” Erie County Office of the Executive press secretary Peter Anderson told Fox.
Latisha Rogers was behind the customer service desk at Tops when she first heard the gunshots, according to The New York Times. Upon hearing the gunfire, she ducked down and called 911 quietly in an effort to remain unnoticed. (RELATED: Police Say Buffalo Shooter Investigated Previously For Earlier Threat)
“I was whispering because I could hear him close by,” Rogers told WGRZ. “The dispatcher yelled at me, ‘why are you whispering?’…I said ‘ma’am, he’s shooting, this active shooter, I’m scared for my life…she said something crazy to me and then hung up in my face.”
“I can’t sleep. I can eat a little bit, but I just keep hearing gunshots and just seeing the bodies,” Rogers told the Buffalo News regarding the shooting.
People called for help and this was the response… pic.twitter.com/EFLG2gJn28
— India Walton From Buffalo (@Indiawaltonbflo) May 16, 2022
The May 14 massacre was not the first time Buffalo was struck by a mass shooting, according to the New York Post.
On Aug. 14, 2010, a gunman fatally shot four people execution-style and wounded four others outside a Buffalo restaurant, the NYP previously reported.
The shooter, 23 year-old Riccardo McCray, was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2011 for the killings, according to Buffalo NPR affiliate WBFO.
The suspected gunman, 18 year-old Payton Gendron, is accused of perpetrating the mass shooting at the Tops supermarket in a predominantly black neighborhood, leaving 10 dead and wounding three others.
Gendron was arrested Saturday and charged with first-degree murder.
The Buffalo Police Department and Anderson did not immediately return TheDCNF’s request for comment.
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