22 Shots Launched Hellish Day; Emergency Teams, Victims, Witnesses Stunned by Bloodbath

Summary

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Even before the shooting on March 12, employees at the Waukesha County Communications Center were having a rough day. False reports of structural fires, a car accident, suicide threats. One dispatcher wondered what else would go wrong.

At 12:51 p.m., she got her answer. The man on the phone described a gunman shooting members of the Living Church of God during their service at the Sheraton hotel in Brookfield. As the shooter reloaded his 9mm Beretta, the caller had run out, not stopping until he reached the Sears department store some 200 yards away. He was out of breath as he told dispatcher Kerri Weindorfer that at least six people had been shot.

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22 Shots Launched Hellish Day; Emergency Teams, Victims, Witnesses Stunned by Bloodbath

"Oh, crap," Weindorfer thought. Her heart raced, but she controlled her voice. A dispatcher in training listened in beside her.

As Weindorfer pressed the caller for more information, the first police units were dispatched. Four more 911 calls came in less than a minute.

A woman called as she huddled under a chair inside the hotel's Wisconsin room, pandemonium erupting around her.

A third caller fell apart as a dispatcher asked her for details as simple as where she was and what had happened.

"I don't know. I don't know," the caller said, hysterical. She finally handed her cell phone to another woman, who was more ...

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