911 call taker fired after hearing determines she mishandled call during Tops shooting

The county administration terminated Sheila E. Ayers after her disciplinary hearing held Thursday.

Spokesman Daniel Meyer said a hearing was held Thursday morning for a police complaint writer – Ayers' formal job title – and that the person was no longer employed with the county as of noon.

Ayers, an eight-year 911 call taker with Erie County's Central Police Services Department, was working in the Enhanced 911 call center the day of the shooting.

Latisha Rogers, an assistant office manager at the Jefferson Avenue Tops location, had dialed 911 while hiding behind a customer service counter when the assailant was gunning down people in the store, ultimately killing 10 of them.

Rogers said the call taker, whom The Buffalo News learned was Ayers, reprimanded Rogers for whispering and told Rogers to speak up.

"She was yelling at me, saying, 'Why are you whispering? You don't have to whisper,' " Rogers said, "and I was telling her, 'Ma'am, he's still in the store. He's shooting. I'm scared for my life. I don't want him to hear me. Can you please send help?' She got mad at me, hung up in my face."

In recounting the story to other news outlets, Rogers has also mentioned dropping her phone and said when she picked it back up, the 911 call taker had hung up.

When reached by The Buffalo News, Ayers said she is sorry about what Rogers experienced during the shooting but that Rogers has changed her story about what happened on the call "multiple times." 

"I’m being attacked for one side of the story," she said.

County Executive Mark Poloncarz said in the days after the incident that Ayers disregarded her training and that the way she responded to the caller was "completely wrong."

The county's call center receives area 911 calls made from mobile phones. Poloncarz said that call takers are trained to recognize that if the person on the other end of the phone is whispering, that means the caller is likely in danger. That danger does not just include active shooters but incidents of domestic violence.

After Rogers' allegations surfaced, Central Police Services administrators spent the next day reviewing all 911 calls made during the shooting and identified the call in question, Poloncarz said. While it's not clear who hung up on whom, he said, the call taker's response to Rogers was still "completely unacceptable."

Ayers was placed on paid administrative leave May 16.

"It is our intention to terminate that individual for what was a completely inappropriate response in a terrible situation," Poloncarz said at the time.

Poloncarz also said he would release the transcript and recording of the 911 call.

But First Assistant Erie County Attorney Jeremy Toth said the call recording and transcript would not be released, despite the fact that a number of other police departments have provided 911 call information to the news media. He pointed to Section 308.4 of New York county law that states E911 calls "shall not be made available" to the public.