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Subscribe to RSSEmergency dispatchers are often the first point of contact when tragedy strikes. Dealing with people in difficult situations such as shootings, home break-ins and fatal accidents are all part of the job.
But for Aurora, Colo., 911 dispatcher Kathie Stauffer, it took all she had to show strength on the outside -- all the while nervous on the inside -- during her five-hour ordeal directing police and other resources to the movie theater where a gunman was shooting at patrons during the midnight premiere of the latest Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises."
After word of the shooting spread through the dispatch center early Friday, Stauffer knew that in order to help those at the scene she had to remain calm and professional.
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"You have to mentally break away," she told NBC station KUSA in Denver. " You can't identify too much."
The night started out relatively quiet. "My screen was very empty," she told the Denver Post.
Then around 12:40 a.m., call after call started to come in all from the same place -- the Century Aurora 16 cineplex.
"They're saying somebody is shooting in the auditorium," she said.
Scores had been shot and help was needed quickly. Stauffer calmly radioed to a few officers and directed them to the scene.
A few minutes later, she and the other dispatchers directed every officer in the city to respond to the scene of the shooting that would leave 12 dead and dozens wounded.
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Once at the theater, officers pleaded for assistance, gas masks, ambulances and medical care. During the chaos the 39-year-old mother of two kept her composure, even while thinking of her own children.
"Every call with a kid, I'm thinking of my own," she told the Post. "That's really what I'm struggling with now -- not to think about my own daughter every time."
The next few hours were crucial. Stauffer directed resources to police while fellow dispatcher Cheri Brungardt, 32, worked with the fire and rescue dispatchers.
Watch US News videos on NBCNews.com
The scene was so big, personnel on the ground didn't have enough gear and other agencies still had not arrived.
"It's hard though because we want to help people. We sent help but sometimes that's not enough." Stauffer told KUSA as she wiped away tears.
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"Our job is to send help, and the guys we sent to help were calling for help and we couldn't help them," Stauffer said. "Normally, they get on the radio and the magic dispatcher gets them what they need. This time, they kept calling. They needed help and they couldn't get it."
Both dispatchers told the Post they know it will take time to get over what happened. Stauffer has been off the police dispatch and has been moved to fire duty since the shooting.
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Actually the whole teach your kids properly and don't just let the TV raise them goes with Obama's 2008 campaign rhetoric.
Lets see if he revises and reuses it for 2012 in the aftermath of this.
yer stewpid.
When a cop dies, all we hear about is how they put it all on the line every day. Well, they should have marched their asses in that theater immediately upon arriving. You can't have it both ways. Either citizen safety or officer safety comes first. If it's officers over civilians, then they're utterly useless.
Oh my....some of the comments are ridiculous! The reduction in officers and their budgets created by cuts was extremely obvious in this scenario. Not every officer has all the equipment to handle every situation because their budgets don't allow it. And to the moron who said it took the police too long to arrive, 90 seconds! Gaaaawd, cannot stand uninformed comments!
Never mind gun laws, those people needed help and couldn't get it,they could not get the protection they needed,their rights were violated in the worst way,but yet retard carrot top will have protection at the cost of all the people including the ones he shot,also they will make sure his rights are protected. WTF kind of world is this . Something is very wrong and it ain't guns !
Yes I'm a Concealed weapons carrier. What would have happened if I was there and I took out this nut job after his first shot. Would I have been the bad guy or the good guy? Either way, I'm going to protect myself and my family. If you think gun control is going to stop this stuff, your as nutty as the freak in court today.
The right to bear arms was written along time ago...when we didn't have assult rifles and high capacity magazines...when people needed to hunt for food and protect there land and family....times have changed...its time for gun control....@!$%# the NRA
There goes the government owned sheeple rhetoric again. The second amendment of the constitution was put into place to give power to the people over and above a tyrannical government PERIOD!!!! For the exact reasons of what you see unfolding before your very eyes right now. But not to worry, the American people as a whole have become so candy a$$ pussified that they will just simply roll on over for it. We are over half way rolled over right this moment. Just another little push and the deal will be sealed.
Really, its simple, bring back security guards...they are deterents. In my day, you couldn't go far without seing either a police or security. Unfortunately, this country probably spends a lot less than other countries on this reality. Cameras?.....ahhhh, that's too late. Yeah, I know, they can get killed too but they do have guns.
The right to bear arms was written along time ago...when we didn't have assult rifles and high capacity magazines...when people needed to hunt for food and protect there land and family....times have changed...its time for gun control....@!$%# the NRA
There goes the government owned sheeple rhetoric again. The second amendment of the constitution was put into place to give power to the people over and above a tyrannical government PERIOD!!!! For the exact reasons of what you see unfolding before your very eyes right now. But not to worry, the American people as a whole have become so candy a$$ pussified that they will just simply roll on over for it. We are over half way rolled over right this moment. Just another little push and the deal will be sealed.
Are you kidding me? First of all, this has nothing to do with American citizens protecting themselves against a tyrannical government. This is about the senseless act of a madman committing a massacre - a madman who has the free will and ability to purchase a massive amount of firearms and ammunition thanks to the personal freedoms our country embraces - freedoms that are both envied and feared throughout the rest of the world. Second - even if this was about the 2nd Amendment, which this shooting is not, history is rife with accounts of Framers fearing the Constitution would be construed as a unmovable entity, one that did not evolve with standards of decency such as the whole idea that an African American is valued as less than a person than a white male. Everyone is entitled to their own view - but face it - Europe has far fewer deaths and accidents due to shootings - but that did not stop the massacre in Norway. However, their laws sure as hell make it harder for someone to get firearms. Coincidence? Perhaps, perhaps not. The rest of the world has their fair share of problems, but blaming our government for the insanity of this horrific and unjustifiable killing of innocent life by one deeply disturbed individual makes no sense at all.
saying that guns are the problem is equivalent to blaming eating utensils for making you fat. anybody on this stream who supports more strict gun laws (or more strict laws on anything for that matter) are a perfect example of the product created by mass media and the powers that fund/create its rhetoric/propoganda. educate yourselves people. question your government, your media, and most of all YOURSELF. try to understand where you gained your perspective on reality, and realize that your perspective has been corrupted from birth.
I can count to potato too...
yea, I see all kinds of criminals carrying muskets these days, lol. Your being conditioned the media prints stories that rile people up. You know there are stories out there that a gun saved someone do you ever hear them, certainly not it doesn't fit the agenda these days, they are working on disarming everyone so you get stories that suit that agenda!
Everyone but me.
They did not get the help or equipment they needed!!!??? WHY? Because our money is being spent on wars that no one cares about and to "free" other people!!!!REALLY?
I am ashamed that we can not take care of our own folks first. Makes it hard to be a patriot.
This is true. the world platform appears to be much more important than the welfare of our country and people!
Not only appears to be, it IS. We have been sold down the road in the name of greed and the NWO. Our government is full of communists. From this point going forward we have one helluva rocky road to travel that will only continue to get more and more rocky the farther we go until we finaly drop off the face of the earth. Just watch and see.
The police can not protect us. It takes them an hour to round up emergency services and enough police to be effective and do first response even. By that time the dead and dying are dead! No help there! An hour or two after the shooting, full police response does not help any one stay alive or not be shot. If you do not want to be shot, you must concealed carry a weapon and be able to protect yourselves! Think about it!
Almost no one has ever shot anyone with a concealed permit pistol which has not shot at or shot someone by a felon or a psycho! Consider that in your opinions on this subject.
Terrorist's Checklist - Time Sheet:
1. Emergeny Units must check with their Union- Legal Reps, to make sure they'll get paid overtime & covered at no expense.
2. Emergency Units must make sure they'll get free donuts before and after work.
3. Emergency Units must be assured they'll get their pay raises and increased benefits packages.
4. Emergency Units must be assured they'll get free paid vacation trips to Colombia to check out the Street & Hotel Lobby Whores.
5. Emergency Units must be assured they'll get less Height, Weight , health restrictions to keep their cushy tax paid positions.
Terrorist's Note To Self: Emergency Units are more valuable to their spouses and families, dead than alive.
National Guard Units receive far less for their efforts than Local, County, State & other Federal Agencies.
The Timothy McVeigh Center for Higher Education.com
Perfect reason for more security and protection.
This is not about President Obama, President Bush, a bullied busdriver, or parents who keep their children out late. This is not about the 2nd Amendment, evangelicalism, or Hollywood. This is about the act of a madman. Little Veronica, her mother, and the other victims did not seek or provoke a senseless massacre. Put the political and traditional rhetoric aside - for no normal human being wants to believe another would commit such a horrific act, and to live our lives thinking that of one another would be end of civil discord as we know it. Of course we want to blame someone - the shooter's mother, his camp counselor, the GOP, the movie theater owner, the NRA, the liberal left - but in the wake of this loss of innocent life, it is clear that no real culprit is anyone other than the killer himself. Like the rest of us, he has free will - and chose to use it. The act of buying a ticket to a movie involving violence mean you condone the purchase of a personal arsenol, nor does letting children stay out late one night as a treat justify their murder or maiming. May justice in this life or the next be done, may the victims' souls rest, and may the rest of us here on earth do all that we can to create a world devoid of unspeakable horrors such as this, for the heavens are too crowded with angels tonight.
The answer is to allow conceal carry at these venues, rather than creating free fire zones for the mentally instable of our society, or even post "conceal carry allowed at this venue" which would at least if nothing else serve as a deterent, The outcome would at the very least been a lot less fatalities, due to a conceal carry person going through his or unlock codes and taking out the threat to him. his and the other movie gowers and their famillies.
Wake up America, you have an unique opportunity in this world in the form of a bill of rights, one of which, something called the 2nd ammendment, rather that stripping yourself of your rights, use them!
In no other society in the world does the presence of more guns result in less violence. It's quite the opposite.
saying that guns are the problem is equivalent to blaming eating utensils for making you fat. anybody on this stream who supports more strict gun laws (or more strict laws on anything for that matter) are a perfect example of the product created by mass media and the powers that fund/create its rhetoric/propoganda. educate yourselves people. question your government, your media, and most of all YOURSELF. try to understand where you gained your perspective on reality, and realize that your perspective has been corrupted from birth.
I can count to potato too...
or just open your mouth and close your eyes, and take in your spoon full of medicine. it will keep you safe and free from harm. thank you mother government for keeping me so safe and out of harms way... what would us "sheeple" do without you??
Wake up people. This is our country. Once you stop questioning everything the governmet does, you give up your rights and your power to that government. "People should not be afraid of their government, the government should be afraid of the people."
We have lost our "tribe mentaility" and are all too concerned with personal greed/ego. If this country functioned as one big tribe, the 'James Holmes' of this world would be quickly identified and flushed out. Shoot him in the head and be done with it. Why should we have to pay a ton of tax dollars to watch this idiot sit on death row, or get an insanity plea?? Be done with him, and anybody else who wants to embody that type of evil. Why sit here and waste our energy and thoughts on that piece of garbage? Lets explore some real problems.
GREAT JOB LADIES IN DISPATCH!
I was a call taker/dispatcher. We were a small agency so we typically worked solo shifts.
I know from experience what a "big" call is. We had an apartment fire that was burning fast. My officers heard radio dispatch for the fire department. We actually had people jumping from 2nd floor windows. I then enacted mutual aid and got nearby fire departments and other police responding. Luckily there were only minor injuries. I didn't feel the stress and emotion until I got home.
Again Kudos to you ladies. I hope they provide you critical stress debriefing due to such an emotionally intense night at work.
I think people are forgetting what this story is about. This story is about the dispatchers. Rarely do dispatchers get recognition unless it's for screwing up. Girls, if you're reading this, my heart is out to you. I know how much you wish you hadn't had to take this call...or wanted anyone to, for that matter. Your community should be very proud of the way you handled yourselves in such a stressful situation. God bless you all.
Fellow dispatcher, NW Ohio
DITTO to you Mary911. Great statement.
Fellow dispatcher: Oregon
Gun control just hurts the "good guys." The bad ones will always find weapons. Simple as that. If you still aren't convinced just look how the "war on drugs" is going. I can't get more than a few months of refills for legit medication (non-controlled) but drug junkies can still get drugs everywhere.....
gun control placing all your shots in the bulls eye guns forever for those of you who do not want guns dont buy one and quit your bitching
Those of you who hate the rich or those that can afford things must be and are the ones we are feeding, you lazy s.o.b.'s Now that being said go get a job and then you can buy a new car, stop having little bastards and you can afford a vacation. Get the picture looser. As for the operator congrats you did a great job.
I haven't read every article...but does anyone know where this guy entered the theater?
I mean did he come through a back door...because how on earth could you just walk in a theater loaded down with guns and ammo...and no one notice and jump your butt?
Where was the turnstile ticket taker...he/she is to blame for letting this guy in without a ticket. (joking peple)
We spent over a trillion dollars on homeland security and counting. All the resources including helicopters and military personnel should have been their within minutes with tactical and support services. The problem is lack of communication? Or is it not possible to respond to a tragedy in such a short time with everything necessary. You can only give what you have at that time. I believe they all did their best including the victims.