- The Tallahassee-Leon County Consolidated Dispatch Agency said they received 808 calls in 3 hours on the day of the FSU campus shooting.
- That led to a law enforcement response of 100 personnel at the height of the incident, said the CDA Director, David Odom.
- FSU PD was the first on the scene and the agency apprehended the shooter. Due to commencement this weekend and the ongoing investigation, FSU said they would not be able to comment at this time.
- Watch the video to hear from law enforcement that were on the scene that day and how agencies coordinated their response.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
There were 808 calls in 3 hours into this Consolidated Dispatch Agency on the day of the FSU campus shooting. It’s a volume that leaders here said they hadn’t seen since their time here. We're finding out how they coordinated a law enforcement response to these calls on the day of the shooting.
On an average day, the Consolidated Dispatch Agency said each dispatcher will answer up to 120 calls per shift, however, it was a different story on April 17th, the day of the FSU campus shooting.
"Typically you could go, you know, four or five 911 calls," said David Odom, Director of the Tallahassee Leon County Consolidated Dispatch Agency, explaining the situation that day. "I think when I looked at the operations board at the time, we were at 60, and that's a huge influx of calls, and we just don't see that volume like that."
The total — 808 calls in 3 hours — all with varying levels of information.
Odom said in a critical situation like an active shooting, vetting those details is crucial.
"If we're just getting information about a singular person and we're not getting another call about it, then the likelihood is not as valid as if we're getting a call about an incident where we've got three or four different people calling," said Odom.
Yet, those details help kick start law enforcement response as they begin to funnel this information out to agencies.
"The first 911 call comes in, two minutes later we already have a police officer on scene engaging with the suspect," said Odom.
FSU PD was first on the scene, then supported by many law enforcement agencies across the city.
Chief Lawrence Revell with TPD, the agency now leading the investigation, commended FSU PD's response and said April 17th's outcome came down to the strong partnerships and training.
"That's why I talk about it all the time, that it's so important to build these relationships ahead of time and then to make sure that we already talk about these things," said Chief Lawrence Revell with the Tallahassee Police Department.
It's a sentiment echoed by Uniformed Patrol Division Chief, Ron O'Brien, with the Leon County Sheriff's Office.
"We have ongoing rescue task force training which involves the fire department and law enforcement and those trainings are specifically geared for incidents like this," said O'Brien.
At the height of the incident, Odom said 100 officers were on the scene.
Odom said the CAD is now working on after action reports.
"Could we do something a little differently here to make sure our response is even more effective? Two minutes, can I get it down to one minute response? How do we do that?" said Odom.
The CDA is looking into how they can make their technology more mobile and they want to educate the community, including making neighbors aware they can also text 911 to communicate with a dispatcher.
As for the investigation, Chief Revell said the suspected gunman, Phoneix Ikner, remains in hospital and the agency is continuing to comb through digital and physical evidence.
"We have to analyze all of that information, try to put all of those pieces together from cameras around FSU and other places, and just put that puzzle together so that when it is presented to the grand jury, the case is rock solid, and that's the process that we're in now," said Revell.
We did also contact FSU PD for comment — the agency who were first on the scene and the one that apprehended the suspect. FSU said now was not a good time with commencement this weekend and status of the ongoing investigation.
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