In the wake of the Buffalo, New York, supermarket slaughter, we reported on the revelation from the assistant manager of the TOPS supermarket, Latisha Rogers, who explained that she was talked rudely to and ultimately hung up on by the 911 dispatcher on the other end of the phone when she called the emergency line to report the ongoing attack inside the grocery store — forcing Rogers, in the end, to call her boyfriend while an active mass shooter was in the building, and ask him to call 911 for her.
Now, according to a new report from WIVB-TV, Erie County has officially fired the dispatcher who hung up on Rogers during an active shooting, in which 10 people were shot and killed during the racially-motived attack in the predominantly Black community in New York.
In an interview with The Buffalo News the day after the brutal attack, Rogers described what she was subjected to by the 911 dispatcher on the other end of the phone line.
“She was yelling at me, saying, ‘Why are you whispering? You don’t have to whisper,'” Rogers explained, “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.”
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Rogers had to call her boyfriend after the dispatcher hung up on her and ask him to report the mass shooting at the supermarket.
“I felt that lady left me to die yesterday,” Rogers heartbreakingly told the local newspaper.
Following Rogers’ revelation, reports claimed that the 911 dispatcher in question was placed on administrative leave.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz spoke with the newspaper and explained why the dispatcher’s actions during the call with Rogers were “completely unacceptable.”
“We teach our 911 call takers that if somebody’s whispering, it probably means they are in trouble,” he stated.
The Buffalo supermarket shooting suspect has officially been charged with a domestic act of terrorism motivated by hate, 10 counts of murder in the first degree, 10 counts of murder in the second degree as a hate crime, 3 counts of attempted murder in the second degree as a hate crime, and a felony gun charge.
Featured image via screen capture
