MetroSafe workers reflect on calming frightened callers during Louisville mass shooting

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Louisville dispatchers are still re-living the moments they tried to keep people safe during a mass shooting downtown.

They were some of the first to know something horrific was taking place at the Old National Bank building Monday morning.

As a 911 call taker, you learn to expect the unexpected, remaining calm and collected while chaos unfolds.

"Some are a little more stressful than others," said MetroSafe call taker Dana Frost.

That was the situation for Frost as she started taking reports from terrified callers telling her that a mass shooting was taking place Monday morning.

"When you start getting multiple calls, you know it's something serious," Frost said.

Frost answered one of the first calls Monday morning. It was from a woman inside the bank.

"What I remember most is her whispering, and then hearing the shots fired," Frost said.

On the call, the bank employee told Frost she was hiding inside a closet. She went on to provide a detailed description of the shooter, and recalled the number of coworkers she saw hit by bullets.

"I tried to say on the line with her -- keep her calm, talk to her, reassure her that help was coming," Frost said.

Josh Cothern, a MetroSafe dispatcher, was also working that morning.

"The vibe in this room just felt different and I haven't been able to find a word to describe the way it felt," Cothern said.

In a matter of seconds, the information from callers was relayed to dispatchers who communicated with officers on the ground.

"I had the incident in Camp Taylor," Cothern said.

Louisville's Camp Taylor neighborhood is where authorities said the shooter lived. The Louisville Metro Police Department's SWAT team searched the home and hauled out bags of evidence.

"We had a tactile channel assigned for the officers at that residence," Cothern said. "That was my responsibility."

Together, Frost and Cothern provided calm in the midst of chaos.

"The satisfaction for me is knowing that in that 16 years, I know that I have saved lives, 100% -- and that's what I do this job for," said Cothern.

Frost said she hopes to one day meet the woman who was hiding in the closet.

"I would like to meet her -- look her face-to-face," she said. "I mean, I know she is okay because I heard the responders find her, but to be able to see somebody that you helped is different."

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