An emergency services dispatcher in Buffalo could be fired after being accused by a supermarket employee of hanging up on a 911 call during a call. racist shooting at the store last week.
The dispatcher was placed on administrative leave on Monday following an internal investigation and faces a disciplinary hearing on May 30 at which “will be terminated,” said Peter Anderson, Erie County executives spokesman, said.
The investigation was prompted by comments on The Buffalo News by Latisha Rogersan assistant manager of the office at Tops supermarket where a white gunman killed 10 blacks at one of the worst racist mass shooting in recent US history.
The man charged with murder, Payton Gendron18 years old, was accused of traveling 200 miles from his home in Conklin, NY, specifically to kill Black people, motivated by racist beliefs in so-called replace they.
On Saturday, authorities said, he opened fire outside the supermarket, then went inside and continued to shoot shoppers and workers before surrendering to police. He pleaded not guilty to first degree murder.
Ms. Rogers told The News that after calling 911 while trying to hide from the gunman, she whispered in hopes of continuing to evade his notice. The dispatcher reminded her, she said.
“She was screaming at me, saying, ‘Why are you whispering? You don’t have to whisper,” Mrs. Rogers told The News,’ and I said to 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, punched me in the face ”.
Ms. Rogers, 33, told The News she then called her boyfriend and told him to call 911.
She gives a similar description of events in a Interview with The New York Timessaid she was behind the store’s customer service counter when she first heard gunshots.
After bending over, she told The Times, she pulled out her cell phone, dialed 911 and whispered to the dispatcher that someone was opening fire in the store. Ms. Rogers said in the interview the dispatcher asked why she was whispering, and then the connection broke.
Anderson, a spokesman for Erie County executive Mark Poloncarz, told Fox 5 New York that “the dispatcher’s action has nothing to do with sending the call.” At a news conference Sunday, Buffalo police commissioner Joseph A. Gramaglia said the first 911 call came in at 2:30 p.m. and officers arrived at the store at 2:31.
Association officials representing the coordinator, CSEA Local 815, could not be reached immediately for comment.
