Tallahassee shooting 911 tapes highlight heroes who helped in aftermath

February 14, 2019

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) –

are painting a picture of what happened in the moments after a disgruntled Army veteran opened fire on a group of people in a Tallahassee yoga studio last year.

Eight tapes were released to WCTV. They feature the unsung heroes and the survivors who clearly would not let fear win.

"He came inside the room and he locked the door and he started shooting everybody," one unidentified witness can be heard saying.

"I was exiting from the spaghetti place down below and I saw some people all kind of screaming, almost like they were excited or something. I just thought it was girls happy to see each other," said a caller. "I didn't realize they were screaming because something bad had happened."

The shooting disturbed what was otherwise a normal Friday afternoon.

"She just walked in my store and she is shot in the leg," said a neighboring business owner. "We have the doors locked."

The tapes also reveal how one after another, people in the stores and restaurants nearby tended to and looked after the victims.

One man can be overheard asking someone if they are bleeding anywhere, then telling the dispatch operator that "one of them is shot in the leg."

"I'm on a sidewalk on a bench putting pressure to a wound," said another caller who told 911 operators he was with a woman who had been shot through the upper body.

The dispatchers can also be heard doing their part as the situation becomes more clear.

"We've got multiple victims with a shooting to the chest," said one operator.

After one victim said she thought she may be shot multiple times, another dispatcher did her best to ease her anxiety.

"OK, calm down baby. We've got them on the way, OK?" she can be heard saying.