Audio recordings of emergency calls during a shooting early Sunday at a party in Pittsburgh illustrate in real-time the chaotic scene that police and partygoers experienced as the gunfire continued.
As officers begin responding to the scene on Suismon Street at Madison Avenue, the sheer volume of people becomes clear.
“Large crowd … we need more units out there. Large, large crowd,” one officer shouts.
“Take as many as you need,” comes the response.
Soon a dispatcher notes that they “have officers from every zone going right now.”
Two 17-year-old boys were killed in the shooting at an Airbnb rental property, and eight other people were injured by gunfire. Five people were injured trying to escape the chaos.
As minutes tick by, the radio calls indicate how officers continued to discover multiple shooting victims at multiple scenes throughout the area. Four victims found near a medical building. Another was found in the 800 block of Concord Street.
“We have a gunshot victim in the back of the patrol car, going to AGH,” an officer says at one point. Later, he says he’s dropped off the victim at the hospital and is heading back to the scene.
At one point relatively early in the melee, a first responder says he is on Peralta Street and “had someone run up and tell me to tell the police that the shooter is in the bathroom,” he said. “I’m not sure at what address they’re talking about.”
Warning: This audio contains real-time police radio calls that some might find disturbing.
