A newly released collection of emergency calls, radio transmissions and dashboard camera footage offers a window into the chilling and chaotic scene that unfolded at a Lafayette movie theater last week, when a gunman opened fire on the audience.
Jillian Johnson, 33, of Lafayette, and Mayci Breaux, 21, of Franklin, were killed in the attack. Nine others were wounded. The funeral services for both women were held on Monday.
“There’s a shooting at the Grand 16,” the first caller tells a 911 dispatcher, through heavy, panicked breaths.
“He shot right at people,” the caller says, adding that the gunman is an “older guy”, “white”, wearing a “white shirt”. The caller tells the dispatcher the shooter fired “six or seven” shots.
Another caller tells the dispatcher she was walking into the theater when a woman with a gunshot wound left it. Another caller begs the dispatcher to send more ambulances. A theater employee working in the box office places a frantic call, telling the dispatcher: “There’s two people shot, two people shot.”
Turning to the scene, the theater employee attempts to comfort a victim, as people cry in the background.
“The ambulance is on the way,” she says.
The newly released media files include audio of six 911 emergency calls and two radio transmissions and video from a responding officer’s dashboard camera, as well as surveillance footage from the theater that shows the gunman’s arrival. The files were released in response to records requests filed by media outlets on Thursday, a week after the shooting took place.
The names of the responding officers and the 911 callers have been withheld. As the case is still under investigation, a lawyer representing the city-parish said the tapes represented only a fraction of the hundreds of calls police received.
The radio transmissions show how responding officers were dispatched and how much they knew about the active scene they were sent to secure.
Footage from the dashboard camera of a police car shows officers speeding to the theater, their sirens blaring.
“Can you give me any information on a suspect or anything?” an officer says. “I don’t want to walk into a guy with a gun.”
When the police car arrives, patrons can be seen walking out of the theater. Several people begin shouting information at the officers. “He has a handgun,” one woman says, while more police cars can be heard arriving in the background.
A dispatcher tells police that callers have identified the gunman as a white male, and says he was last spotted near the back of theater. The officer says he is headed to the back of the theater, but is interrupted by another officer.
“They said he is inside. He is in No 14 – that he is reloading,” the second officer says. “He has a weapon. We have an active shooter here.”
The officers go back and forth, using code.
One says: “All right headquarters, listen. We need everybody over here. Send anybody you got.”
“10-4,” a dispatcher replies. “We are sending everybody. S-O is also in route.”
“Take it easy,” another officer says. “Everybody’s en route. We’re coming.”
Just seconds later, the dispatcher tells the officers: “We’re just advised the suspect shot himself.”
The officers inside the theater respond, out of breath.
“What number? What number theater? We are in the theater,” one officer says.
“Fourteen, No 14,” the dispatcher says.
“We got one subject down,” an officer says.
“All right, we got several more victims inside,” another officer shouts. “Suspect is down! Suspect is down! We have several more victims inside with gunshot wounds!”
It is still unclear why 59-year-old John Houser, who was described by a police as a “drifter” and an “outsider” and was not from the area, opened fire on moviegoers in Lafayette. Investigators have said they are combing through Houser’s journal – the contents of which have not been released – as well as online postings to try to identify a motive. Friends and family said he had a history of mental illness and recounted instances of violence.
Police said Houser intended to escape after the shooting. He had switched out his license plates before driving to the theater, and investigators found wigs, glasses and other disguises in the Motel 6 room where he had been staying.
