South Phoenix Shooting: 911 dispatcher speaks out on February shooting that left multiple police officers hurt

A Phoenix 911 dispatcher who was communicating with officers the night that nine officers were hurt in a shocking shooting is sharing her story.

Shooting left suspect and woman dead

The shooting happened at a home near 51st Avenue and Broadway Road on Feb. 11. According to Phoenix Police officials, officers were called to the scene at around 2:00 a.m, after the suspect in the shooting, identified as 36-year-old Morris Richard Jones III, called police and claimed that his wife had been shot by an intruder.

When an officer approached the house, Jones reportedly invited him inside before shooting him multiple times in an ambush. Backup officers later arrived and surrounded the home, with Jones barricaded inside. At some point during the standoff, a man inside the home, since identified as the brother of the female victim, walked out and placed a baby on the ground before being detained. The female victim was identified as 29-year-old Shatifah Lobley of Phoenix.

As officers approached the house to get the baby, the gunman opened fire. Two other officers on scene returned fire, but four more officers were hurt by ricocheting bullets and shrapnel.

Eventually, police were able to get inside the home and found Jones dead, along with Lobley. Officials later say Jones died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

911 operator said night took emotional toll

On March 3, we spoke with Monica Dominguez, a 911 dispatcher who handled some of the calls that fateful night.

It was about a five-hour call for Dominguez, and the situation very quickly escalated. She says the whole night really did take an emotional toll.

"The scariest, fastest, slowest call I've ever had to work," said Dominguez. "It didn't have a lot of info anything specific of what was going on, so right away, it did not feel normal. It did not feel like a call we would receive at that type of night.:

Another dispatcher later took the call, and Dominguez was in charge of communicating with the officers on scene for hours, while also tracking ambulances transporting officers.

"It was slow in the sense of it was four-and-a-half, five hours, but it snowballed so fast from the second they got on scene to the officer shot, to the next officer," said Dominguez.

Dominguez couldn't see what was going on, but she heard it all, to the moment when officers reported a baby on scene in the middle of the shoot out.

"It made it more personal for myself and everybody involved, 'cause a lot of us have kids," said Dominguez. "Always, when babies and kids are involved, it definitely strikes the heartstrings."

In her 13 years as a dispatcher, Dominguez says she has never had an officer injured call, and it will take her some time to get over the shock.

"Physically, I was up and moving and talking, so the emotional aspect of it was hard for me," said Dominguez. "We're a team. We're a family. We all want to go home at night, so it was hard. It was hard."

Dominguez says she is back at work now, and is grateful that all nine officers survived this.

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