Timeline: How Savannah first responders responded to the Savannah High active shooter hoax

Before law enforcement confirmed the shooting at Savannah High School and Savannah Early College (SEC), and other schools in surrounding counties, was a hoax, they, and other agencies, had to react.

Fast.

Savannah Police and Board of Education Police, along with other law enforcement agencies, entered the school prepared to diffuse the situation, catch an active shooter and save endangered students. Chatham Emergency Services was on site and ready to transport any injured students or faculty. Memorial Hospital had to be ready to assist any injured students or faculty.

And, according to the agencies, they were all prepared for the worst.

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8:35 a.m. — Active shooter call at Savannah High comes in

An officer on duty reported that he was notified by dispatch that they received a call from an anonymous person, stating that an active shooter was inside the Savannah High School building and six students were shot on the second floor.

The officers immediately contacted school administration who initiated a lockdown.

Board of Education Police Chief Terry Enoch was turning from President Street onto Pennsylvania Avenue, when the call came in over police radio that there was an active shooter. He was driving to Savannah High School to meet some of his staff to “look into a previous incident," but, now, his attention was diverted.

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Before the call, two Board of Education Police Officers — one Senior Resource Officer (SRO) and one School Safety Officer (SSO) — were in the building, Enoch said. The hoax caller had given a specific location they wanted to target — a second-floor room number, said Enoch.

“When the call came in, the [SRO] responded,” Enoch said. “I don’t think our response could have been more immediate."

At 8:36 a.m., Chatham County 911 Dispatch aired the 911 call.

Around 8:40 a.m. — SWAT, Chatham EMS arrive on scene

At 8:38 a.m., the first Savannah Police officer arrived on scene.

SPD Lieutenant and SWAT Operator Chris Talley was working in the central precinct when he heard the 911 Dispatch call. He said he arrived within two minutes of the call.

“A call for every SWAT operator was told to respond to Savannah High School,” said Talley.

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The SPD SWAT team is part-time, which means not everyone is working SWAT at all times, Talley noted. Some may be working with the Strategic Investigations Unit (SIU). Others may be working Patrol. Even then, officers arrived at Savannah High in two minutes, and SWAT officers arrived in “roughly three to four minutes,” Talley said.

“There was no hesitation by the police officers if there was a person in that school actively hurting the children,” said Talley.

Chuck Kearns, CEO of Chatham Emergency Services (Chatham EMS), was on Derenne Avenue and Truman Avenue when he heard the 911 dispatch call. At first, he was unsure what was happening. Then, he saw a series of public school police cars speeding by him.

“That put up my antenna a little bit because you never see the public school police hot," said Kearns.

Kearns told dispatch to place him on the call. He notified the president of the board of directors. He listened to dispatch, curious about which other agencies were responding to the incident.

“And then you might not think of this, but I always call my wife,” said Kearns, beginning to tear up. “I let her know what's going on, where I'm going. And you know that I love her. Because you never know, going into these things, if that's the last time you'll ever get to say that.”

When Kearns got out of his car, he grabbed a defibrillator, a jump bag, and tourniquets, and a wad of rubber gloves. "When you go to the next patient, you’ve got to change your gloves so you don’t contaminate them with the other person’s blood," said Kearns.

At the school, EMS set multiple sectors set up — the entry team, the ambulance staging sector and the triage sector.

Meanwhile, word quickly got to Memorial Hospital through a series of police "back-channels," said Dr. James Dunne, Memorial Hospital Chief of Trauma and Critical Care Surgery.

Memorial Hospital activated their active shooter plan — a carbon copy of the active shooter drills they perform two to three times per year. Dunne said 20 total staff members were available, including five to six surgeons, 10 respiratory therapists, and all the nurses from the Emergency Room and the Hospital. Normally, in a casualty event, Memorial Hospital has one trauma room available. But, in a mass casualty event like this one, the hospital has 10 to 12 operating rooms available.

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“We were up and ready to receive a large number of casualties,” said Dunne.

At 8:40 a.m., Board of Education Police officers arrived at the school. The BOEPD officers were at the Parker’s on President St. Ext. when they heard the call.

At around 8:45 a.m., police moved students outside.

Around 9 a.m. — First responders believe a hoax is happening

15 minutes after the 911 dispatch call, Kearns was starting to get suspicious.

“These kinds of things you’re hearing about patients pretty quickly, right?” said Kearns. “And we weren’t hearing that. We were thinking ‘this might not be the real thing.”’

Kearns realized it was a hoax when he was under the canopy of a command vehicle. ATF and FBI officers stood next to him. Everyone was listening to the radio traffic. At one point, one of the ATF agents said, “We’re getting multiple, almost exact calls from all over the state,” Kearns remembers.

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He briefed upper management. “It was a hoax,” Kearns said.

But not everyone left unscathed. One student suffered a seizure. Another collapsed as they were evacuating, right near an ambulance near the staging area. “They were both easy to take care of, respectively," said Kearns.

About 9:30 a.m. — Students moved out of school as parents are notified

Police guided students from inside the school to the gates near Clemson Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. Police from different law enforcement agencies guarded the gate. Some students jumped the fence. Other students stayed within the confines of the fence.

Active shooter protocol dictated that students be moved outside, Enoch said, but students were not supposed to jump the gate. The “few” students who did jump the gate, Enoch said, will face “accountability."

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“When you saw people jumping the fence, of course, they should have stayed there…There's a lot of anxiety there, and students made some bad decisions,” said Enoch.

SCCPS sent their first communication – an email and phone call – to parents at 9:33 a.m.

"This is a safety message to alert families that emergency responders are on site and searching Savannah High School and the Savannah Early College this morning in response to unconfirmed reports of a gunman in the area of the campus. A lockdown was initiated at the school. Emergency responders are evacuating students to a safe unification point while the search continues. There is no information at this time to confirm that the reports are accurate; however, a full response to the potential threat is taking place for the safety of all occupants. Parents will be provided information as to reunification process with students when the all clear is given."

A few parents were upset about the SCCPS communication, but Enoch said it was part of the protocol.

“What is it that you think we can tell [the parents]? Do you tell the parents at this point students outside? At this point, we have no information to believe that bad guys are embedded within those students, right? So, what is it that we can tell the parents?”

Around 11 a.m. — Parents re-connected with students

At 10:56 a.m., SCCPS sent their reunification message to Savannah High and Savannah Early College families.

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"Emergency responders have completed the search of Savannah High School and the Savannah Early College and have given the all clear. The campus has been deemed safe and reports of a gunman at the school are false."

Individual schools began to send out messages to their families about a “soft” or Level 1 lockdown at about 11 a.m.

Kearns happened to stop by Candler Hospital for a meeting at 10 a.m. When he walked through the doors, “everybody stopped and stared at me.”

“Everyone can stand down,” Kearns remembers saying. “This one was a hoax. And there was this big collective sigh of relief and you could just see people's shoulders kind of relaxed because they were so tensed up and ready for the first [patient].”

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To ensure there was no active shooter, Lt. Talley said the SWAT team “to go through the whole process to confirm that the school is completely clear. There's nobody inside that school that is unwanted other students and faculty. It was a long process.”

Investigation into hoax not over

Dr. Dunne can recall the last mass casualty event: It was 2008. The sugar refinery exploded. Upwards of 30 patients come into the hospital wounded.

“Fortunately, these incidents don’t happen a lot in Savannah, and I’m very grateful for that,” said Dunne.

The School District isn’t finished addressing their response to the hoax.

Moving forward, the Board of Education Police is conducting an “after-action review,” said Enoch.

“We’re looking at what went right, and what went wrong?” said Enoch. “What can we do better? We know there's no perfect science to this thing. You're always looking at ways to improve the efficiency of everything from communication to the way you train.”

At a debriefing meeting last week, “we talked about some things that we can continue to work on. Communication with our parents, to try to make sure that what we're reporting is accurate. We felt we did a pretty good job. But we saw other areas that we can continue to improve on. So that's what we're doing.”

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah active shooter hoax: Timeline with how first responders reacted