An emergency services dispatcher in Buffalo who was accused of hanging up a 911 call from a supermarket employee during last month’s racist shooting was fired on Thursday, an official said.
The dispatcher, who has not been publicly identified, was fired at a disciplinary hearing, official Peter Anderson, a spokesman for the Erie County executive, said in an email.
Mr Anderson said the dispatcher, who had worked for Erie County for eight years, had been on paid administrative leave since May 16 “as the mismanaged call was investigated.”
The investigation was prompted by comments from a Tops supermarket employee, where a white gunman killed 10 blacks on May 14 in one of the worst racist shootings in recent U.S. history.
Latisha Rogers, a deputy office manager at the supermarket, told The Buffalo News that she had called 911 while hiding inside the store and was whispering on the phone to avoid the gunman’s attention.
She said the dispatcher warned her to speak quietly on the call.
“She called to me, ‘Why are you whispering? You don’t have to whisper, “Ms. Rogers told The News,” and I was telling her, ‘Ma’am, she’s still in the store. She’s shooting. I’m scared for my life. I don’t want her to hear me. You can send help? ‘ He got mad at me, hung me in the face. “
In a separate interview with The New York Times, Ms. Rogers said she was caught behind the store’s customer service desk when she first heard gunshots and called 911 on her cell phone.
He said the dispatcher asked him why he was whispering and then the connection was broken.
At a news conference last month, county executive Mark C. Poloncarz said the handling of the call was “completely unacceptable.” No call transcript published.
The dispatcher was represented by the Civil Service Employees Association, a New York public employees union.
“CSEA has negotiated the contractual disciplinary provisions of due process that the parties must comply with and we have ensured that the process was followed fairly and properly here,” Mat Cantore, the union’s acting communications director, said in a statement. .
The man accused of committing the Buffalo shooting has been charged this week by a grand jury of 25 charges, including murder and domestic terrorism. The suspect, 18-year-old Payton Gendron, pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he faces life in prison on charges of domestic terrorism.
The shooting in Buffalo, New York’s second largest city, took place 10 days before 19 children and two teachers were killed in a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.