MARYSVILLE — Four teens were in critical condition, and two already were dead.
The decision for firefighters: Wait close to 20 minutes for a helicopter, or drive with lights and sirens to an Everett hospital and try to get them help in half that time.
Within 10 minutes of the first 911 call reporting shootings at Marysville Pilchuck High School, fire battalion chief Scott Goodale had crews set up a landing zone for medical helicopters on the school’s ball fields.
By radio to the dispatch center, he asked for two helicopters. Meanwhile, aid cars from all over Snohomish County were pulling up to assist.
The recordings of firefighters’ emergency radio traffic from Oct. 24 were released Friday under state public records laws. Most of the 911 calls and the police radio traffic from those first few hours have already been made public.
The firefighters’ emergency radio traffic provides a more exact timeline of decisions made in the first hour of the response, when people believed there still was hope of saving those who were gravely wounded.
The radio traffic does not include telephone conversations between firefighters and staff at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett, who directed the medical response.
Killed were Shaylee Chuckulnaskit, Zoe Galasso and Gia Soriano, all 14, and Andrew Fryberg, 15. All were shot in the head. Nate Hatch, 14, was shot in the jaw. He is recovering at home.
The shooter, Jaylen Fryberg, 15, shot himself and died at the scene.
Just after 13 minutes into the response, Goodale asked the 911 dispatcher for an update on the helicopters.
He was told they were 18 minutes out.
“Repeat that please,” he said.
Dispatcher: “Nineteen minutes out on the first bird. Second should be right behind.”
Moments later, an aid car was rolling code, taking the first of the wounded to Providence.
Within the next five minutes, Goodale made clear on the radio there was enough help at the scene. He asked dispatch to cancel the second helicopter.
Within another three minutes, he said: “Sounds like Prov is going to take all of them. We will not need airlift.”
Dispatchers confirmed that both helicopters were canceled. One was en route from Seattle, another from Bellingham.
Additional aid cars left with the remaining victims over the next few minutes.
Within days of the shooting, people in King County questioned the decisions made by doctors at Providence and aid crews in Marysville. They wondered why all of the patients weren’t taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, which has a more advanced rating for trauma, particularly pediatric trauma.
Marysville Fire Chief Greg Corn has defended the decisions made during the first hour.
The radio traffic about the shooting began at 10:39 a.m. It took mere moments for the magnitude to sink in.
Early in the recordings, the first medics to reach the Marysville Pilchuck High School cafeteria described the dire condition of those who had been shot.
Two students were believed dead. Two minutes and 30 seconds after they arrived one medic reported: “He’s confirming code black. One of them is the shooter.”
At six minutes and 22 seconds in came the update: “Four red. One black.” Translation: four gravely injured; one confirmed dead.
Within 18 minutes, the accurate count was provided to dispatchers, along with details about where patients were being taken.
“Two black. Four red. Sounds like Prov is going to take all of them. We will not need airlift.”
Dispatcher: “Two black. Four Red. Prov to take all patients. Canceling both airlifts.”
Within 30 seconds, Marysville paramedics reported they had arrived at Providence with the first patient.
About 37 minutes after the first crews had been sent to the shooting scene, the hospital asked emergency responders to confirm that all patients were on their way.
The inquiry was met with brief silence, then, “They are all on the road. There (are) no more here.”
In addition, other recordings were released Friday, also from the first hours.
Some came from frightened students hunkered down in classrooms. Many were from concerned parents and neighbors.
Less than 90 minutes after the shooting, many emergency responders were helping people off campus.
Chaplains asked for directions about how to get to where they were most needed. Firefighters, trying to calm grieving relatives of those who were shot, shared their urgency.
That pressure was particularly acute at Marysville Fire District Station 62, where frantic families of those felled by the gunfire had gathered.
Shortly after noon, a firefighter told the command center: “We are going to need multiple chaplains at Station 62. We have got family members in our training room.”
Minutes later, he renewed his request, saying, “We need to expedite those chaplains if you can.”
Earlier this week, SNOPAC released recordings of other 911 calls. One of those documented teacher Megan Silberberger’s requests for assistance moments after the gunfire in the cafeteria.
She reported multiple students had been wounded and that the shooter had turned the gun on himself.
“He is a high school student. I do not know how old he is. I tried to stop him before he shot himself. I do not know his name,” she said.
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