‘Police Are Coming’: Emergency Calls Exposed at California Dance Studio with Mass Shooting

The first call to 911 about the shooting at the Monterey Park dance hall came in at 10:22 p.m.

A chaotic and tragic night soon followed during the Lunar New Year celebrations in the San Gabriel Valley region east of Los Angeles.

One of the first callers desperately needed help parking outside the Star Ballroom. As he and his girlfriend were driving away, someone opened fire on his car, he told the fire dispatcher.

Dispatcher: “Your girlfriend is awake?”

Caller: “I’m not sure.”

The dispatcher asked if the victim could speak.

Caller: “No, she can’t talk.”

Dispatcher: Is she breathing? Breathe.”

After a pause, the man said, “No, maybe she died. I’m not sure”.

“The ambulance and the police are arriving,” the dispatcher said after the caller described the victim’s condition.

The call was one of several calls on February 21 from a dance hall where 11 people aged 57 to 76 were killed and nine injured. The shooter who opened fire in the parking lot entered the ballroom, firing at the hall, authorities said.

The calls to police and fire dispatchers were made public on Thursday by a Monterey Park City clerk. They offer more details on the chronology of that night’s events, as well as the desperation and horror that the callers faced.

The authorities, who arrived at the first calls, found the victims in the parking lot and in the ballroom.

During another call to 911, the caller informed the dispatcher that the shooter was reloading his weapon. Another call came from a nearby Clam House restaurant, where people who had just entered reported a man with a gun.

The caller can be heard talking to witnesses who saw the armed man.

Dispatcher: “Where did this man go?”

Caller: “I have no idea.”

Another caller said the shooter just got out of the dance studio.

Caller: “Someone is using a gun, shooting people in the studio. We just got out.”

The dispatcher asked the caller to verify the address of the Star Ballroom Dance Studio.

Dispatcher: “How long ago?”

Caller: “Just two minutes ago.”

Dispatcher: “Can you see if anyone got hurt?”

Caller: “I don’t know. It happened so fast.”

Police and fire dispatchers can be heard trying to reassure callers that help is on the way and trying to locate the shooter.

The gunman entered another ballroom in the nearby Alhambra, where he was disarmed by a man in the lobby, which authorities said likely saved lives. The shooter died hours later in the parking lot of the Torrance Strip mall from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.

Authorities continue to investigate possible motives for the shooting. The shooter had no known personal ties to anyone in the dance hall and had not visited the studio for the past five years.