Police release new narrative report detailing Orlando horror
An incident narrative of 911 calls, texts and related information released Tuesday by the city of Orlando reflects the horror of a gunman's reign of terror that left 49 people dead at the Pulse nightclub June 12.
The first 911 call came in at 2:02:54 a.m., according to the fire department's report, which identifies the incident as "unknown trouble." Three seconds later, the report cites "shots fired" and seven seconds later "shots still being fired."
Within three minutes the report merges multiple calls to build a narrative. One caller is hiding in a closet, another "upstairs." The report notes that a caller is whispering and that multiple people can be heard screaming. Several times over several minutes the report says gunshots can be heard.
Seven minutes after the first call, the narrative notes one caller "is no longer responding, just an open line with moaning."
At 2:18 the report says "SWAT has been paged per Lt. Scott Smith."
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The report tracks efforts to pinpoint the number of shooters, and once it is determine there is a lone shooter, where that person is in the nightclub. The narrative also details areas where groups of people say they are hiding.
At 2:41 the narrative states that "shooter is in downstairs female restroom w/vic that has been shot in the leg." More than 10 minutes later the narrative reports that the shooter says he is a terrorist and has bombs strapped to him in the bathroom.
A flurry of activity takes place over the next 2-plus hours. At 4:09 the narrative says the gunman is "reloading his guns" in a bathroom and, apparently incorrectly, that he had bombs strapped to him. No bombs were found.
At 5:02 the report says "SWAT breached." At 5:17 the the report says "bad guy down."
Emails released Tuesday reveal concerns over an exit door that might have been blocked or broken. The email trail, however, also indicates the club had more functioning exits than required for its 299-person capacity. The city and nightclub both issued statements Tuesday saying there was no indication any exits at the club were blocked that night.
The information was released the same day a court hearing was set to begin on efforts by media outlets to force the city to release 911 recordings and calls between officials and gunman Omar Mateen, who was killed in a shootout with police after a three-hour standoff. City officials say the information is exempt from public release.