In Fla. theater shooting 911 call, pleas for help
NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. (AP) — In a 911 recording released Friday, a caller present when a man was fatally shot in a Florida movie theater tells the dispatcher that patrons were trying to save the victim with CPR and pleads, "We need an ambulance, stat."
Chad Oulson and his wife, Nicole, were in the Wesley Chapel movie theater, about to watch "Lone Survivor" when he was fatally shot during an argument with another man.
Curtis Reeves, a 71-year-old retired police officer, is charged with the second-degree murder and is being held without bail. Authorities said Reeves became upset when Oulson was texting during the previews; the two men got into a verbal argument and witnesses told officers that Oulsen threw popcorn at Reeves.
The 11-minute, 27-second call, released by Pasco County officials, appears to be from an off-duty nurse in the theater that day. The nurse tells a dispatcher that the victim's pulse was weak and requests the ambulance.
Amid much commotion in the background, the caller tells the dispatcher that he is a nurse and that he and others in the theater were trying to save Oulson's life with CPR.
"Come on, buddy, breathe. Breathe, buddy," the man said.
The dispatcher also repeatedly whether the shooter is still in the theater — he was — and says a deputy had to enter the theater before paramedics could.
Records released Friday from the county show that the first 911 call came into the communications center at 1:29 p.m. that day. It took a deputy four minutes to arrive at the theater, officials said, and seven minutes for paramedics.
The caller also notes that there was an off-duty officer in the theater; Pasco officials said that the off-duty officer detained Reeves and took his gun before deputies arrived.
