One call is from a father in Tampa. He tells the 911 operator that his daughter called him to say she was shot in the leg and arm.
His daughter is hiding in the bathroom but he can’t get hold of her, he says.
The 911 operator tells him to take a deep breath — police are at the nightclub and trying to rescue people.
“Hope for a call from your daughter.”
The desperate exchange offers a brief window into the evening a gunman stormed Pulse nightclub in Orlando, killing 49 people and injuring dozens more. Gunman Omar Mateen was killed in a shootout with police hours later
The call was among nine 911 calls released Thursday by the Orlando Police Department from the June 12 predawn massacre. The release comes two days after the Orange County Sheriff’s Office released its 911 calls.
The FBI approved the release because the calls are not part of the investigation, the Orlando Police Department said Thursday.
The calls were from people inside the club, as well as family and friends who received calls from those inside while the gunman went on a rampage.
In another call, a Pulse employee told police that he and five others were hiding in the dressing room in the left side of the building.
In another, a woman told the operator that while she was waiting outside for her girlfriend to come out of the club, the shooting started. Her girlfriend, a dancer at the club, was hiding inside the dressing room.
Various media outlets, including CNN, have filed a lawsuit asking the courts to require the Orlando Police Department to release all 911 calls in accordance with Florida’s broad public records law.
A hearing in the case is scheduled Friday in Orlando.
