Dramatic 911 tapes from Monday night’s Garden State Plaza shooting have been released, describing terrified employees trapped and hiding in the Paramus, NJ mall as a gunman calmly squeezes off shots into the air.
The first of dozens of frantic calls came in at about 9:20 p.m. from an Inglot cosmetic store employee who ran for her life with two others to a bathroom when they heard gunfire erupt.
“Somebody is shooting up Garden State Plaza right now,” the woman tells the 911 operator.
“Someone is shooting?” the operator asks.
“Somebody is shooting up Garden State Plaza right now. I’m in the bathroom at my job,” the woman says.
Fearing the gunman could be near, the employee then begins whispering to the operator during the nearly 16-minute call.
Warning: Strong Language
“I haven’t heard any (gunshots) but I don’t hear any sirens … So please hurry,” the woman whispers.
“They’re already on their way. Everybody in the county is on their way. Every police department is on their way,” the operator assures her.
Inglot is located across the hall from Nordstrom, where crazed gunman Richard Shoop, 20, fired six shots into the air Monday night, 10 minutes before the mall closed.
A different woman called 911 moments later, saying she caught a glimpse of the shooter.
“He had a motorcycle helmet on, all black, and he had a big, long gun,” she tells the operator.
Shoop, 20, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head at about 3:20 a.m. in a storage area in the mall.
Cops said they didn’t believe the Teaneck, NJ resident, who has a history of drug abuse, intended to hurt anyone else, just himself. No one else was injured in the shooting.
Operators kept employees and customers calm during the chaos, encouraging people to stay put until cops can safely reach them.
“There’s a shooter — There’s a group of people inside the back of the …” a man whispers to a 911 operator as he hids with seven others in the back of a Coach store.
“Listen, I want you stay there okay, and you’re going to stay there until we have either a police officer come get you or ‘til you hear somebody say it’s all clear. Okay?” the operator calmly instructs the man.
Garden State Plaza is New Jersey’s largest shopping mall, located about 15 miles northwest of New York City.