Nov. 13--A series of 911 calls released by Snohomish County, Wash., rescue officials this week paint a portrait of chaos and panic inside Marysville-Pilchuck High School on Oct. 24, with terrified parents and crying students calling police, their relatives and 911 dispatchers hoping to find out what happened inside the cafeteria where Jaylen Fryberg shot five other students and killed himself.
"There's somebody shooting at our school!" shrieks one student in a brief call to the dispatcher.
The Snohomish County Emergency Communications Center, known locally as SNOPAC 911, released 15 recordings of 911 calls between dispatchers, parents and students on Wednesday. The agency also released several calls between rescue personnel and police, and will release additional recordings on Friday, according to Laurie Goodwin, SNOPAC's records custodian.
Listen to some of the 911 calls below.
Goodwin told the Los Angeles Times that dispatchers received 43 911 calls within an hour of the shooting. At several points in the recordings, students and parents repeat details of the attacks already relayed to the dispatchers, who try to calm the callers to no avail.
"I have the shooter. One shooter. Blood is everywhere.... I need help," teacher Megan Silberberger, who hurried to intervene when Fryberg opened fire, shouts in one of the calls. "I need help now."
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For the Record
Nov. 13, 1:15 p.m.: An earlier version of this post incorrectly said teacher Megan Silberberger wrestled with Jaylen Fryberg for control of the gun. Police have said there was no physical struggle between them. An earlier version also said Fryberg lured four other students via text message; in fact, it was five students.
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Fryberg, who appeared to be bitter over a recent break-up in social media postings published days before the attack, lured five other students to the cafeteria via text message before opening fire.
Fryberg and one of the victims, 14-year-old Zoe Galasso, died the day of the shooting. Three others have died since: Fryberg's cousin Andrew Fryberg, 15, and Gia Soriano and Shaylee Chuckulnaskit, both 14.
Nate Hatch, another cousin of the shooter, was the lone surviving victim and was released from the hospital last week.
Several parents also called 911 hoping to get information about the shooting from dispatchers, as they were unable to reach any school employees in the moments after Fryberg opened fire.
After receiving a call about shots fired from his daughter, the father of one student defiantly told dispatchers he would head to the school himself to find out what was going on.
The most dramatic call seems to have come from Silberberger, who sounds like she's crying throughout the conversation as she tries to grasp the chaos in the cafeteria.
"I tried to stop him before he shot himself," she said. "Many are down, I do not know how many are down."
