'I'm hurt ... help me!' What dispatchers heard the night officer Breann Leath was killed

The girlfriend of accused cop killer Elliahs Dorsey described the violent, chaotic moments inside her apartment when she called 911 the day Indianapolis Police Officer Breann Leath was fatally shot.

“You gonna kill me, get out .. . get out!” Aisha Brown screamed at Dorsey with a dispatcher on the line, according to a 911 tape played on the third day of Dorsey’s murder trial before Marion County Superior Court Judge Mark Stoner.

Within minutes of the desperate call, Leath and Brown had been shot, and Dorsey arrested at the apartment at 1803 Edinburge Square on April 9, 2020.

Dorsey, 31, is charged with the murder of Leath and the attempted murder of three other officers. He is also charged with the attempted murder and criminal confinement of Brown. He has entered an insanity defense.

Brown’s call to 911 was the first of two she made that morning. The second was after she’d been shot and lay injured in a hallway as police tended to Leath.

'He was asking weird questions.'

Brown was working at home as an insurance customer service representative during the COVID-19 pandemic and Dorsey had spent the night. The couple had known each other since high school and had started to see each other regularly since February.

Brown told the jury Dorsey had acted paranoid since he woke up on April 9, 2020, repeatedly insisted someone was trying to kill him and his family and accused her of being part of the plot. He paced around the apartment with a semi-automatic long pistol strapped around his shoulder and a handgun in his waist, Brown said. The couple smoked a joint about 11 a.m. but Brown said Dorsey had never before exhibited that behavior.

“He was asking weird questions,” Brown said. “He kept thinking I was doing something … like I was calling people to come get him.”

Twice that morning, Dorsey grabbed Brown’s Glock handgun out of a drawer and pointed it at her, Brown testified. The second time she got it back by biting his hand. When she went to the bathroom mirror to inspect her bloody mouth, Dorsey slammed her face into the mirror, Brown said.

Brown called Dorsey’s mother and asked her to get her son.

“Your son is tripping and he won't get out,” she said.

Brown finally called 911, but Dorsey snatched the phone from her, dominating the call with paranoid rants.

“Have you ever had one of those days when you feel like someone is going to kill you all day?” he asked the dispatcher.

Leath and three other officers arrived shortly afterward, stood at the side of the door and knocked but did not say they were police. “It was not a police knock,” Brown said. But she said she knew it had to police because she had just called them.

'I’m hurt, help me, help me!'

Brown got up to answer the door. Dorsey grabbed her arm and pulled her back into the front living room. From about 15 feet away, he fired eight shots through the door, striking Leath.

The police officers left the building to call for backup and Brown ran out of the apartment, stepping around Leath’s body. As she fled, Dorsey stepped out of the door and shot her, striking Brown in the back of the thigh and the back. She stumbled down the stairs and collapsed on the second-floor landing. Then she dialed 911 again.

“I’m hurt, help me, help me!” she said, according to the 911 tape played in court. “I’m hit, I’m hurt.”

Dorsey followed her, grabbed her phone again, and went back into the apartment. By that time the officers were coming back into the building.

“I’m sorry, I’m coming out right now,” Dorsey said. “I just threw the rest of my life away. I’m going away for a long time.”

“Put your gun down,” the dispatcher said. “Do what the officer tells you to do."

The line would stay throughout Dorsey's arrest and he could be heard pleading with police not to kill him.

You killed a (expletive) cop, you (expletive!)” Sgt. Michael Skeens can be heard saying. “You’re not gonna kill me! You’re getting the chair for this, buddy!”

Courtroom coverage: Tearful testimony as police describe final moments of officer Breann Leath's life

Courtroom coverage: Officer Leath's partner recalls day she was killed during 1st day of trial for accused shooter

Call IndyStar reporter John Tuohy at 317-444-6418 or email him at john.tuohy@indystar.com. Follow him on Facebook and X/Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Girlfriend testifies at trial of accused Indianapolis cop killer