ORLANDO, Fla. – Nearly three hours after a gunman opened fire at Pulse nightclub, a man calls from inside the bathroom at 4:55 a.m. begging emergency officials for help.
The call was one of more than 160 new audio recordings released Wednesday afternoon. The city of Orlando has been releasing batches of 911 calls all week following a ruling by an Orange County judge last week.
Many of the newly released calls lasted less than minute. Others came from friends and family concerned about the safety of their loved ones who were inside the club when Omar Mateen opened fire at about 2 a.m. on June 12, killing 49 people and injuring more than 50 others.
A trapped caller expresses his frustration, telling the operator he and more than a dozen other people have been waiting, but so far no one has arrived to assist them.
"We have four people that are deceased and we have two people shot that are getting worse," he said in a 911 call that lasted a little more than 2 1/2 minutes.
He asks what more he can do. He doesn't know how to help.
"I don't understand, where are they?," he said. "Someone needs to come in here, I don't know what else I can do."
An hour earlier, at 3:22 a.m., another caller trapped inside a different bathroom expresses a similar sentiment. He says the other victims in the bathrooms aren't moving. At least two people in the room have been shot. One man who had been lying on him is now dead.
"We need medical assistance as soon as you can," he said. Then later, "We need some help, assistance, like now."
The call is punctuated by prolonged silences and muffled whispers.
In those calls, and several others just like it, the operator urges the victims to stay on the phone, telling them help is on the way. In one instance, the operator has to dissuade the caller and his friends from trying to flee.
“I hear screaming,” the 23-year-old man tells the dispatcher just after 3:30 a.m. “Please, we’re so scared.”
The dispatcher tells him they could be mistaken for the shooter if they run out. The man and his three friends are rescued just after 3:40 a.m.
Before he hangs up, he exchanges an emotional good-bye with the dispatcher who he has been on the phone with for more than an hour.
“Ok the cops got us out,” he said. “Thank you so much. I appreciate everything.”
The dispatcher sighs.
It would be more than two hours before the shooter is dead and all the remaining survivors in the club are rescued.
Throughout the three-hour standoff dispatchers stayed calm and tried to keep their callers from shutting down.
Just before a 20-year-old woman and a group of people are rescued after police remove an air conditioning unit from the dressing room at 4:18 a.m. a dispatcher gives his all trying to let her know help is really coming.
"I know it’s hard for you to swallow that and be patient, but you just need to stay with me on the phone," the dispatcher said to her. "I’m not going to get off. They’ve tried to ask to relieve and I said, no, I’m not leaving the girl."
He asks her if anyone she was with tested or called their loved ones and family.
"I have yet to do that, because I am going home tonight," she said.
He doesn't hang up until he knows she is safe.