911 tapes capture panic at zoo

[TexasStooge]

By BERT LOZANO / WFAA-TV

Dallas, Texas - Tapes of 911 calls released Monday shed some light as to how Dallas Zoo employees and patrons responded after realizing a gorilla had escaped from its habitat.

Through drills, the zoo trains employees on how to react to an animal escape. Officials now admit the 911 call did not go as planned. In fact, they said Dallas Fire-Rescue had to call back to figure out which gate to enter the zoo.

It was time wasted when there was no time to waste.

After witnessing the gorilla on the loose, Enrique and Andrea de Leon no longer take for granted moments with their children. Enrique was the first to call 911 on his cell phone.

"There's a gorilla loose and it's going after people," de Leon told the dispatcher, who replied: "Are you serious?"

"I'm serious," de Leon said. "I swear to God, I'm not joking. There's people yelling, it's going after people."

As visitors began running in a panic, de Leon said he saw silverback gorilla Jabari attack Keisha Heard and her son Rivers.

"It was 'hurry up', the way I figured it," de Leon said. "If they would have (taken) any longer, they would have been dead."

The second call to 911 came from Dallas Zoo secretary Norma Morales two minutes later.

"This is Norma at the Dallas Zoo," she told the dispatcher. "We have a gorilla out at the aviary—we need police here."

Zoo personnel admit Morales was vague and did not follow exact procedures. Zoo training procedures instruct the communications center to notify 911 of an animal escape and request police and an ambulance.

Still, the director for zoo operations said zoo employees "performed well."

The de Leons said it took nearly 45 minutes before paramedics arrived, so Enrique cut a fence to rescue the victims as his wife administered first aid on Keisha Heard's son.

"He was crying, and I didn't want him to go into shock," Andrea de Leon said. "I kept talking to him the whole time."