911 call taker fired after hearing determines she mishandled call during Buffalo shooting

[dalton99a]

https://buffalonews.com/news/local/911-call-taker-fired-after-hearing-determines-she-mishandled-call-during-tops-shooting/article_8c8a58ce-e282-11ec-922f-87146267c849.html

911 call taker fired after hearing determines she mishandled call during Tops shooting
Sandra Tan | Jun 2, 2022

The Erie County 911 call taker accused of mishandling and cutting off a desperate call by a Tops employee during the mass shooting on May 14 has been fired.

The county administration terminated Sheila E. Ayers after her disciplinary hearing held Thursday.

Ayers, an eight-year 911 call taker with Erie County's Central Police Services Department, was working in the Enhanced 911 call center the day of the shooting.

Latisha Rogers, an assistant office manager at the Jefferson Avenue Tops location, had dialed 911 while hiding behind a customer service counter when the assailant was gunning down people in the store, ultimately killing 10 of them.

Rogers said the call taker, whom The Buffalo News learned was Ayers, reprimanded Rogers for whispering and told Rogers to speak up.

"She was yelling at me, saying, 'Why are you whispering? You don't have to whisper,' " Rogers said. "And I was telling her, 'Ma'am, he's still in the store. He's shooting. I'm scared for my life. I don't want him to hear me. Can you please send help?' She got mad at me, hung up in my face."

[LakeArenal]

1. Nice. US gets worse every day.

[intheflow]

8. Although her being fired indicates movement in the better direction. n/t

[secondwind]

2. Omg, what a horror!!!!!

They did the right thing to fire her, for sure!

[BlackSkimmer]

3. Glad to hear she was fired.

That's inexcusable.

I've heard some 911 operators with real attitude over the years. Wrong job for some people.

[llashram]

4. good no room

for taking anything personally in 911 dispatch. Every call is important? I would think so, but what do I know.

[AZLD4Candidate]

10. Unless it's some karen in a parking lot complaining that some non-white person took the spot they

wanted, or the clerk at McDonald's didn't cook her burger well enough.

[NullTuples]

5. All these one-off problems with police departments...if only there was a common root cause

But there's always someone to cut the connections between them, isn't there?

Law enforcement often gets 40% of budgets yet Sheriffs are accountable only to voters. Civic leaders have to negotiate with their own police departments due to union threats. And of course the doctrine of qualified immunity created by the Roberts Court protects cops from any liability.

Maybe it's time for serious law enforcement reform.

[electric_blue68]

6. Omg, that poor caller! Damn. Good for firing that 911 worker

[housecat]

7. Firing isn't enough.

[IronLionZion]

9. Well, now there's a new job opening for a better person

who is willing to do the job correctly.

And it's not just mass shootings. Even armed robberies or domestic violence situations would have a caller whispering. A 911 operator is trained to figure out something is bad enough to send police to check it out.

[usaf-vet]

11. My first thought when I originally heard the story was that the 911 operator was in training.....

.... 8 years at the job SHE should have known better.