Multiple law-enforcement sources identified the slain gunman as James J. Lee, a 43-year-old man who had lived in San Diego before moving to the Washington area. Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger wouldn’t confirm the man’s identity.

After the hostages—a security guard and two male employees of Discovery Communications Inc.—were safe, police worked to secure the site, looking for possible explosives Mr. Lee might have left behind.

The suspect entered the building around 1 p.m. local time waving a handgun, and with metal canisters strapped to the front and back of his vest, according to witnesses. Almost all the people in the building, where about 1,900 people work and which includes a day-care facility, were safely evacuated while police began negotiations with the suspect.

Officials said the suspect had “concerns” with Discovery, waved a handgun and told the three hostages to “stay still.”

“He had a wide range of emotions during our communications,” said the police chief.

Read the full story here.

Fire investigators are still trying to figure out what started the fire at the Bainbridge Apartments Sunday. The fire left more than 40 people displaced and caused a million dollars in damage.

Investigators are still talking to piece together what happened. Witnesses say the fire started in the breezeway, which prevented many people from escaping through their front doors.

Monday night the dispatcher who took the panicked 911 calls from that fire shared his story.

Merri Bruce lives at the apartment complex near Ben White Boulevard.

“We’re lucky no one lost their lives,” she said.

Some say it was more than luck. It was thanks to the help of dispatcher John Kollman.

“We just try to get them to remain calm so we can get them the information that they need to get help as fast as we can,” said Kollman.

His calm commanding demeanor helped get the information he needed so firefighters could get to the scene fast. It can be a tough task when you’ve got people panicking on the other end of the phone.

Kollman said the best thing for people to keep in mind is to speak clearly and try to give the information asked.

“Many times we’ll ask for information several times to make sure we’ve got it correct,” he said.

Kollman helped guide some residents to the safest way out. It’s the kind of call for help he’s answered numerous times in his 8 years as a dispatcher and as a former firefighter.

“The other night I know several people were able to get out of the apartment complex and we always feel good about that,” he said.

Residents clearly agree.

“We’ve got what’s really important. I’m glad everyone got out safe,” said resident Jamie Amber.

Video from KVUE-TV:

Prank calls to law enforcement stations are nothing new, but officials said this caller is targeting different stations and departments with elaborate calls.

For dispatchers at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department station in Norwalk, it began as a call for help that turned into a murder caught on tape.

“He was very believable in his mannerisms, voice and level of excitement,” said sheriff’s Capt. Patrick Maxwell. “The way he led us through it, it was very believable.”

The most recent call was made just after 7 a.m. Wednesday. A crying, frantic caller said he was in a dumpster behind a Chinese food restaurant off Rosecrans Avenue and needed help. It then turned deadly as gunfire could be heard over the phone.

“It was a very dynamic situation that was going on,” Maxwell said. “We believed at the time that we had a shooting in progress.”

Video courtesy of KABC-TV:

Vincent Hunter told WFAA-TV that he called 911 at the same time his home security system also contacted authorities.

Hunter says “we could see it unfolding.”

Hunter says an iCam app, which he bought for less than $5, sent him a text message Friday afternoon alerting him that motion detectors sensed movement in his supposedly empty residence.

Hunter, who has webcams in his home, watched as two men are seen trying to break into the place. They eventually throw a brick through a glass door. The webcams, minutes later, show two police officers entering the house.

Both suspects remain at large.

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Information from: WFAA-TV

“With nearly 90% of today’s mobile devices camera enabled, the public can be an incredible resource for a more prepared public safety response,” said Chris Salafia, president and CEO of PowerPhone. “The potential is limitless. Be it an image of a suspicious person, missing child, video from an accident or even an active shooting, scene specific multimedia can be an invaluable tool in ensuring our responders are better equipped with the one thing they most desire – actionable information.”

The ILM System allows the 9-1-1 center to solicit incident specific images from cellular callers and to receive and process unsolicited images based upon a proprietary message priority engine and locally defined message relevance determinants. Once received by the center, ILM can incorporate the images into existing Computer Aided Dispatch and Records Management Systems.

“The magic of ILM is in the ability to prioritize and incorporate multimedia received into an agency’s existing business rules and workflows,” said Salafia. “Whether it’s registering an at-risk person’s phone number or using location based services to ensure images from an active incident are processed immediately, ILM is the next step in a more robust emergency response system.”

This patent is the third issued to PowerPhone in the last eighteen months. All three are integral components of PowerPhone’s Total Response® Computer Aided Call Handling (CACH®) software, a revolutionary tool to provide 911 operators integrated police, fire and EMS call taking protocols and pre-arrival instructions for a broad range of emergency call types including domestic violence, active shootings, chest pains and rescues.

According to an American Red Cross study on emergency situations, 20% said they would reach out for help through e-mail and social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter. The survey of 1,058 U.S. adults ages 18 and over was conducted July 22 and 23.

The survey, released today, also showed that 35% of those surveyed would post a request for help directly on a response agency’s Facebook page, and 28% would send a direct Twitter message to emergency responders.

“The first and best choice for anyone in an emergency situation is to call 911,” said Gail McGovern, American Red Cross president and CEO, in a statement. “But when phone lines are down or the 911 system is overwhelmed, we know that people will be persistent in their quest for help and use social media for that purpose.”

Read the full article here.

Emergency crews transported the 85-year-old to University Medical Center Brackenridge after the incident at 1000 East 13th Waller St., near 13th and Waller streets .

A passerby who saw the swarm attack the man called 911.

“There are bees, like hundreds, swarming around a guy that can’t get up off the ground. Thousands,” said the man, describing the scene to the 911 dispatcher. “I don’t know what to do in the meantime.”

“You’ve got to hurry up,” continued the man, whose tone remained fairly calm in the frantic situation. “I don’t know if there’s anything we can do in the meantime.”

Transcription of parts of the 911 phone call

• Dispatcher: “And, is he currently being attacked by bees?”
• Caller: “Yes, yes he is. Badly.”
• Dispatcher: “Is there any way you can pull the man … Can you get close enough to … “
• Caller: “No, no. I’ll be totally … no. I mean, it’s crazy.”
• Dispatcher: “Is there any way the man can get up and run?”
• Caller: “Now they’re coming at me. I’m down the street.” Hear yelling and cursing.
• Dispatcher: “Sir, you need to hang up the phone and get a safe distance from being attacked.”
• Caller: “OK. OK.”

Read the full story here.

The Detroit News reports the city’s assistant corporation counsel, Ellen Ha, said releasing the information could cause “widespread publicity” and taint a jury pool.

Officer Brian Huff was shot to death May 3 while investigating a 911 call from a woman who reportedly claimed someone had broken into the vacant duplex next door and fired shots.

“The 911 recording contains information that has not been disclosed,” Ha wrote in her denial of the newspaper’s public information request under the state’s Freedom of Information Act. “The release of the 911 recording could cause widespread publicity, which may cause potential jurors to reach premature opinions.”

Releasing the withheld segments of the 911 and dispatch audio recordings “would deprive a person or persons of the right to a fair trial or impartial administrative adjudication,” she wrote.

Read the full story here.

Dwayne Wilson, 41, is charged with the bloody murder of his sister, Marcia Wilson, 35, her daughter Dartagania and her son DeQuan, both 11, either late Sept. 19 or early Sept. 20, 2005, in the family’s Wegman Parkway home.

Paris Wilson, who is now 14, drifted in and out of consciousness and said his mother died quickly but his brother and sister were alive for some time.

Roughly 36 hours after the stabbing, Paris managed to call 911 and he was the only one found alive.

Paris and the estates of his brother and sister originally sued Jersey City, the 911 operators, a dispatcher and two police officers, claiming the two children could have been saved if mistakes in handling and responding to 911 calls were not made.

The appellate court upheld the Judge Antonin’s decision that the dispatcher and the two police officers could not be held liable.

But the appellate court reopened the possibility that the city and the two 911 call takers could be held liable.

Read the full story here.

But we’ve never stopped at just employing smart people. All PowerPhone trainers must also possess exceptional platform and presentation skills to best ensure that each PowerPhone class is not just informative, but entertaining as well. We’ve always promised that those leaving our classes do so with not just the tools to perform better, but a renewed sense of enthusiasm and pride for their chosen profession.

The clip below is an excellent example of what makes PowerPhone the nation’s leading dispatch training company. It features senior emergency medical dispatch (EMD) instructor John Brunelli sharing a very personal story about a choking call he took as a dispatcher. John was at the time (and remains today) a paramedic. Yet despite his advanced medical knowledge, John felt he did not handle the call the way he should have. To this day, he considers himself exceptionally lucky to not have negatively impacted the outcome of the call and this is part of what drives him to make sure today’s telecommunicators are equipped with the tools to best perform their jobs.

As John says, in today’s 9-1-1 environment of heightened public expectations and liability concerns, no dispatcher should be told to just “wing it.”