Police Release 911 Calls from Manchester Shooting

The first call came just after 7:25.

“Somebody got shot. I got shot. We need the cops. Omar Thornton’s shooting people. I just got shot,” Steven Hollander said.  “Get the cops here right away, please. I’m bleeding all over the place.”

Steve Hollander calls 911 to report the shooting.

He hid in an office and made the call to 911, pleading for police. He calmly told the dispatcher he had been shot in the head and described Thornton.

“He’s chasing people in the parking lot. He’s carrying a red bag.”

For the next hour and a half, several calls will come in reporting the shooting.

At 7:28 a.m., a man calls to report that five people are down at Hartford Distributors in Manchester. By the end of the rampage, nine people would be dead, including the shooter. Two would be be treated for injuries. One is Hollander, who was released from Hartford Hospital on Tuesday afternoon.

A woman calls 911 from inside a closet as the shooter, Omar Thornton, makes his way through Hartford Distributors.

At 7:29 a.m., a woman calls. She is hiding in the dark, uninjured, but the door is not locked, she says.

“I want you to hide and not move, OK?” the dispatcher says. She reassures the caller that people are at the scene and they want to get people out of the building.

“Help me please,” she say’s crying.

At 7:32 a.m. dispatchers received a second call from a woman.

“Hello, are you here yet?” says a woman who is making her second call to 911. “Come in the back please and come get me.”

Dispatchers warn people not to leave the building. 

At 7:42 a.m. a man calls from an office inside Hartford Distributors, with chilling information. 

He tells the dispatcher he's injured, but not seriously. He also tells the dispatcher his son is in the office with him, but it's unclear how old the son is.

"Can you find out if it's safe for me to come out yet?," the caller asks police. 

The dispatcher says it is not safe and tells the caller to stay put.  He responds with details on what he sees. 

"I know for a fact two people are dead in here. Both of them were shot right in the head."

At 7:51 a.m., there is a call from East Hartford identifying the suspect as Omar Thornton.

“He was recently fired,” the caller says, and tells 911 that Thornton has a semi-automatic weapon. 

East Hartford calls again at 8:06 a.m. to say that police can see Thornton through a window in the area where deliveries are made.

 It wasn't until 8:42 a.m. that police finally realize that Thornton is dead and the scene is secure.

A Manchester Police dispatcher talks to a Trooper at Troop H in Hartford.  "We got a report that one of your Troopers is with the shooter."

The Trooper answers "Yes, he's deceased."  The dispatcher wants to be sure.  "Have you confirmed that it's Omar Thornton?," she asks.  The Trooper responds: "I believe so.  The weapon was with him."