Buffalo Shooting Tragedy: 911 Dispatcher Accused of Shouting, Hanging Up on Store Employee During Call for Help

A 911 dispatcher in Erie County, New York, might be fired after a Tops grocery employee said the operator hung up on her during Saturday's attack that killed ten people.

During the scary moments when the shooter was firing in the shop, Latisha Rogers, an assistant store manager, told The Buffalo News that the dispatcher "was yelling at me."

911 Dispatcher Allegedly Hang up on Caller

Following a review of the 911 call, the county will pursue the dispatcher's removal, according to an Erie County Executive's Office spokeswoman. The activities had no impact on deploying officers to the area, said spokesperson Peter Anderson. Officers arrived a minute after the gunfire started.

Rogers claimed she was behind the customer service desk when the gunfire started. "Someone is firing in the shop," she said to the paper as she ducked behind the counter to phone 911. According to ABC News, Rogers claimed the dispatcher inquired why she was whispering and informed her she couldn't hear her. The line was then removed. Payton Gendron, 18, has been accused of the racially motivated mass shooting, according to investigators. The attack murdered ten persons, all of them were black.

In an email to The Associated Press, Peter Anderson, a spokeswoman for Erie County Executive, stated that termination will be pursued. Meanwhile, internet diaries show that the 18-year-old suspected shooter scouted prospective locations by watching a YouTube movie called Buffalo's Worst Neighborhoods.

He claimed that his parents were completely unaware of their expanding stockpile of guns and ammo. The supermarket's extended shutdown has created a gaping hole in the neighborhood's services.

With donated food and other goods, the city assists those who used to buy at Tops but no longer have that option. The Buffalo Bills football squad arrived to distribute hot lunch and ensure that no one left hungry. The NFL Foundation and the team have given $400,000 to relief efforts, as per CBS News.

Payton Gendron Appears in Court

Payton Gendron, a self-described white supremacist, appeared in court on Thursday when he was heckled as a coward as he was led out in shackles in front of families of some of the ten people he is accused of slaying at a Buffalo supermarket. As he was led into Buffalo City Court in an orange jumpsuit with chains over his feet and hands, the 18-year-old kept his gaze fixed on the ground and was surrounded by a swarm of deputies.

Gendron, who was wearing a white cloth face mask, did not respond and remained mute during the brief hearing. After a grand jury indicted Gendron on a first-degree murder allegation, Judge Craig Hannah remanded him in jail and delayed the case. The Erie County District Attorney's Office refused to respond until grand jury hearings, which could entail additional charges of domestic extremism and hate crimes.

Before the hearing, a court official acknowledged to The Washington Post that security had been ramped up as a deluge of local, national, and worldwide media poured into the courtroom. Reporters were wanded by court personnel, and their bags were taken to a separate room to be scented by a K9 before being allowed to enter the basement courtroom where Gendron's hearing was conducted after an initial screening.

The suspect was apprehended Saturday near the location of the massacre, roughly 200 miles from his home in Conklin, New York, wearing camouflage and body armor. He used a camera mounted to his military-grade helmet to live-stream the hate-fueled carnage, which he spent months acquiring and polishing in the lead-up to the attack.

The crazy racial scrawlings on the AR-15-style rifle used in the attack included the N-word on the scope. The gunman apologized to one of the white persons who came into his view, and all but two of the 13 victims shot were black. Later, it was revealed that Gendron had methodically chronicled his perverted race-hate ideas in a notebook, demonstrating that he had been radicalized during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and had planned the assaults for months.

Gendron allegedly described intentions to assault the Tops Friendly Markets and kill as many black people as possible in a psychotic quest to preserve the white race in hundreds of daily journal entries posted to his Discord server, which was taken down after the attack, New York Post reported.