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Buffalo 911 Dispatcher Who Hung Up On Woman Hiding From Shooter Is Fired

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Jun 4, 2022 DailyWire.com

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Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

BUFFALO, NY - MAY 15: Law enforcement officials are seen at the scene of a mass shooting at Tops Friendly Market at Jefferson Avenue and Riley Street on Sunday, May 15, 2022 in Buffalo, NY. The fatal shooting of 10 people at a grocery store in a historically Black neighborhood of Buffalo by a young white gunman is being investigated as a hate crime and an act of racially motivated violent extremism, according to federal officials. — Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

A Buffalo 911 dispatcher accused of shouting at and hanging up on a supermarket worker who was hiding during last month’s racially motivated mass shooting has been fired, according to a report.

The unnamed dispatcher was sacked on Thursday, the Erie County Department of Personnel told CNN. The 911 dispatcher had been on paid administrative leave since May 16 and was fired after a May 30 hearing, according to County Executive Mark Poloncarz.

“She was yelling at me, saying, ‘Why are you whispering? You don’t have to whisper,’” the employee, Latisha Rogers, an assistant office manager at the market, told The Buffalo News last month. “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.”

The call was placed as an 18-year old suspect was spraying the Tops Friendly Market with gunfire in a horrific attack that left 10 dead and three wounded.

Rogers told the paper she had to phone her boyfriend and have him call 911 to report the shooting. It is not yet clear who hung up first.

“I felt that lady left me to die yesterday,” Rogers said.

A 911 dispatcher has been fired after hanging up on a call coming from inside the store in Buffalo where prosecutors say a white gunman killed 10 Black people in a hate-based domestic terror attackhttps://t.co/QbjCf5H4uY
— KTLA (@KTLA) June 2, 2022

Buffalo police went through all 911 calls from the shooting, according to Poloncarz.

“They identified this one call, the issue associated with it, it was completely unacceptable,” he told CNN.

“We teach our 911 call takers that if someone is whispering, it probably means they are in trouble,” Poloncarz said, noting that dispatchers must be aware that callers may be in “an area of concern, not just with regards to active shooters but potentially with regards to domestic violence that someone may be calling.”

Authorities said the shooter arrived at the market around 2:30 p.m. ET wearing tactical gear and armed with a rifle. He shot four people outside the grocery, three fatally, before entering. Once inside, the shooter was confronted by security guard and former Buffalo police officer Aaron Salter, 55, who was shot dead trying to stop the gunman. The shooter shot eight more people inside the store, six of whom died, authorities said. Police responded and took the suspect into custody.

The Daily Wire is not naming the shooter in keeping with a policy of depriving mass shooters of undeserved notoriety.

He allegedly live-streamed the murder spree on Twitch after driving some three-and-a-half hours from Broome County, New York, to the market because it is frequented by African Americans.

Authorities suspect the shooting was racially motivated, in part because the suspect is white and 11 of his 13 victims are black. The barrel of the suspect’s gun bore “the N-word” spelled out in white paint, along with the numeral 14, according to The Buffalo News. A government official told the outlet the number refers to a 14-word statement that is popular with white supremacists.

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