911 calls after Gilroy shooting show scenes of panic, chaos and bravery

Dale Yurong Image
Saturday, August 3, 2019
911 calls after Gilroy shooting show scenes of panic, chaos and bravery
For the first time, some of the emotional 911 calls which came in during Sunday's mass shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival have been released.

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- For the first time, some of the 911 calls which came in during Sunday's mass shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival have been released by Santa Clara County Communications.

Calls came in rapidly and first responders were quickly dispatched.

Those first few moments were critical to the people injured.

Some of these calls are very emotional.

"My daughter is running. They say, people say they are shooting more people."

"We need an ambulance fast."

The calls all describe chaos.

Kim Thompson called 911 while treating a shooting victim.

"I'm a nurse. He got grazed in the right hip and he has a gunshot wound to the right leg. We're treating with a tourniquet," you hear her say.

As people frantically fled the festival, Thompson noticed another victim

"They just carried a body out. Where are they taking it? They're carrying the body."

The mass shooting unfolded quickly.

Thompson is clearly concerned for her own safety but won't leave. She stayed on the line.

"Just doing CPR on her. I'm not leaving the scene. OK we're sending everybody now."

That first victim Thompson came across was Nick McFarland. She finally left when help arrived.

The tourniquet Kim Thompson applied helped McFarland recover. He was able to leave the hospital on Monday.

"The bullet shattering just went all up in my leg. By the grace of God I have come face to face with a gunman with half my family there and we all walked away alive," she says.

McFarland and his best friend Justin Bates were both shot at the festival. Both survived.

So many people stepped up to help the shooting victims.

Two women who were shot said they were taken by golf cart to the parking lot where a good samaritan then drove them to the hospital.