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911

The worst night

By ChezaLunaPublished 2 years ago 3 min read
1

Homecoming night.

It was supposed to be a fun night full of football, competition, and celebration. Our team won the game and the whole town was on Main Street to bask in the victory.

I had volunteered to work the extra shift that night, along with one of my other coworkers. We were supposed to mainly be extra hands to answer phones and take traffic stops from the officers. For the majority of our scheduled shift all was calm and quiet. We began to wonder why we were even needed that night.

It was 10 minutes before time for us, the extra workers, to leave. We had already started gathering our belongings when everything changed. Mayhem erupted. Our phone lines lit up like a Christmas tree. Reports started flooding in about gun shots on Main Street, others about someone being shot. Panic rang through the background loud and clear. We weren’t there, but we could imagine what the chaos looked like. Officers, ambulances, and the fire department were all sent out immediately. Emergency code was called for the officers that had already been working security downtown. Surrounding agencies were notified and all enroute to assist. Obviously, us extra workers weren’t about to leave in the middle of an all hands on deck emergency. A perimeter was set up around the main party area. At one point we thought an officer had been shot (they hadn’t, thankfully). But after all, we were locked in a basement. The only information we had was what came through our phone lines or over the radios.

Finally, things started to calm down. The scene was secured, onlookers were calmed, facts were discovered. One person had been shot (though at the time we were unsure who the suspect was) and was transported to the hospital. We still had officers on scene, but at this point they were only gathering information and doing crowd control. Meanwhile, in our communications room, the supervisor had told myself and the other extra worker that unless anything else major happened, we could leave when they officially cleared the scene downtown.

The city apparently had other plans. We had received a few calls about people drag racing at an intersection about a mile away from Main Street. We had a couple of officers on their way over there. I was taking a call about an accident, a fender bender, just a block away from the drag racing calls. “POW. POW. POW.” Gun shots rang through the phone line. My caller’s voice changed from irritation to fear in an instant. He wasn’t shot, he didn’t see who did the shooting. “Forget the report, I’m getting out of here”, and the phone line disconnected. At the same time, on the other side of the room, officers were coming across the radio who had heard the gunshots. More calls came flooding in. Emergency code was called once again. Officers arrived to the area within seconds. Witnesses on scene gave a very vague vehicle description of the shooters, along with a direction of travel. More officers arrived to go search in the direction provided. They weren’t able to locate the suspects. This time, although a few vehicles had been hit by passing bullets, nobody was injured (luckily). Information was taken, reports were made, shell casings were collected from the street.

An eerie calm set over the dispatchers’ room. Was it finally over, or was this just the eye of the storm? Eventually, both scenes were cleared of all emergency personnel. We waited, and waited, just to be sure we wouldn’t be needed again for the night. Finally, just 2 short hours after we were originally supposed to leave, the extra staff got to head for home.

**I would say this is more “based on a true story” than actual facts considering my memory is not the best. This was just one night in the life of one emergency dispatcher; things like this typically do not happen often (at least not here), nor do all dispatch agencies operate the same or deal with the same problems. Specific details have been left out intentionally. Thank you for reading!**

fact or fiction
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About the Creator

ChezaLuna

I’m just a wife and mom of 2 trying to make it in life. I write in hopes of making sense of the chaos in my mind. Feedback is always welcome! Please like, subscribe, tip, share, pledge or however this site works🤗 thank you for your time!

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  • Daemion Synclaire2 years ago

    Think I remember that night.

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