What happened inside MetroSafe as the Louisville mass shooting unfolded
"It was one of the calls I'll never forget," Dana Frost, a call taker for MetroSafe, said.
Dana Frost was the calming voice on the other end of a chaotic 911 call from a woman inside the Old National Bank during Monday's mass shooting.
The woman was calling from inside a closet with a colleague after witnessing the 25-year-old gunman open fire on his co-workers during a board meeting.
"It was...it was chaotic, but I'm okay," Frost said. "I wouldn't say it was one of my worst calls. It was one of the calls I'll never forget, to sit there and listen to someone who's hiding and hear what's going on in the background is unreal."
Frost is one of MetroSafe's call takers who gather information from people who call to report an emergency. At the same time, call takers are sending that information to a dispatcher who will then send first responders.
During the graphic 911 audio released earlier this week, Frost asks the woman how many people are hurt.
"I don't know, probably eight or nine?" the woman replies.
"Eight or nine have been shot?" Frost asks. "Are you with any of them?"
"Yes, but I'm in a closet hiding," the woman says.
Frost can be heard later asking what kind of injuries the victims had sustained.
"I don't know, I just saw a lot of blood," the woman replies.
Repeated reassurance 'It felt like forever.'
As Frost stayed on the line with the woman in the closet, gunshots can be heard in the background.
She said in the three and a half years she has been a call taker, it's something she has never experienced before.
It didn't impact her at the moment because she was focused on getting information that would help emergency responders.
"Now, it's kind of crazy to listen to the call and hear that and think of how things could have been different had he found her," she said.
During the call, Frost can be heard reassuring the woman that emergency responders were on their way.
"We've got everybody coming, okay?" she tells the woman.
"Okay," the woman says. A moment passes. "How long will it be before they get here?"
"They're already on their way," Frost replies.
"I know, but how long?" she asks again, almost pleading.
Frost recalls how that moment felt like forever. She said after listening back to the call she wishes she had just kept talking to the woman.
"There was a lot of dead air," she said. "I wish I'd kept reassuring her that help was coming. Even if I don't know the outcome, I just have to keep telling them, they're coming, they're coming."
Frost says she still hasn't met the woman on the other end of that phone call. If she ever gets the chance, she said just wants to hug her.
"I wanted to hug her that day, to reach through the phone and hug her," she said. "I just felt so bad for her."
MetroSafe said it is working to reunite Frost with the caller. Moments after reporter Brooke Hasch spoke with Frost on Friday, the woman who was hiding in the closet left a voicemail saying she is eagerly awaiting that hug.
Weird mood in the room 'This felt different.'
Josh Cothern has been a dispatcher for 16 years, six of those have been with MetroSafe in Louisville.
Cothern was off the clock and nearly back home in Elizabethtown when his boss called just moments after the initial 911 calls came flooding in.
"This felt different," he said recalling his actions on April 10. "The mood in this room, the vibe -- it's hard to put a word to it, what it felt like."
"It took me about 45 minutes to get here, but I came straight here to help," he said.
Cothern was manning the tactical channel, relaying witness information given to call takers to emergency responders.
"The call taker is trying to paint us a picture," he said. "They're trying to get us enough information to where we can officially give the police, fire and EMS information to know what they're getting into before they get there."
Trained to keep calm 'You have to compartmentalize it'
Cothern said in situations like the one on Monday, there's a higher level of stress because there are so many moving parts.
He said Louisville Metro Police had officers from every corner of the city responding to the shooting.
"Everybody was coming down here. It was affecting every channel," Cothern said. "Every part of [MetroSafe] was involved."
Both call takers and dispatchers are trained to keep their cool in these moments.
"You have to compartmentalize it. Put your emotions in a box and set it aside," he said. "If I'm a mess on the radio, then it'll get the responders, everyone, amped up."
Cothern said the level of teamwork he saw on Monday -- in and outside of MetroSafe -- helped cut the response time down substantially.
"Added to the response of LMPD, it definitely -- 100% -- saved lives, and that's what everyone in this room is trying to do," he said.
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