VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY/AP) — Authorities say it took 10 minutes – or less – from the time a 911 emergency call was received for police to reach the scene of a mass shooting and track down the gunman.
Virginia Beach Police Chief James Cervera on Sunday provided a rough timeline for the incident at the city’s Municipal Center Complex on Friday, May 31, 2019.
4:08 p.m.: Emergency communications workers dispatch police and other responders to Building 2 at the complex for for a report of shots fired.
4:10 p.m.: The first two officers arrive on scene outside the building.
Cervera described the offices of Building 2 as “a honeycomb” with three floors, numerous entrances and exits, and a basement with a tunnel that connects to another building. “This is a huge building and we had no idea where the suspect was, we had no idea what the extent of the shots being fired call really included,” he said.
Between 4:15 p.m. and 4:18 p.m.: After officers began to enter the building, they made contact with and engaged in a gun battle with the suspect on the second floor of the building.
4:19 p.m.: An officer was injured during the exchange of gunfire.
4:33 p.m.: The first critical transport was made. The last transport of a person injured in the shooting was made within an hour of the initial dispatch, according to Cervera.
4:44 p.m.: Officers breeched the door to the office from which the gunman firing shots. The suspect was found alive, taken into custody and rendered first aid.
Friday’s shooting left 12 people dead and a number of other people injured. Eleven of those people were city employees, while a contractor who was at the building to get a permit was also killed in the shooting.
The eleven city employees killed had served the city of Virginia Beach for more than 150 years combined.
“They leave a void that we will never be able to fill,” said City Manager Dave Hansen, who had worked for years with many of the dead.
Authnorities identified the gunman as 40-year-old DeWayne Craddock, a worker in the public utilities department. City officials uttered his name just once and said they would not mention it again.
Cervera said there is no information at this point whether he was targeting anyone specifically. There was also no immediate indication why the man, a civil engineer, had notified a superior of his intention to leave his job in two weeks.