COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Radio traffic between dispatch and responding officers to the shooting at McEachern High School on Thursday afternoon revealed some of the chaotic moments as officers were searching for the shooters and found the gunshot victims.
Just before 2 p.m., Cobb County Police said they were notified of a shooting in the parking lot of the school along New MacLand Road in Powder Springs.
While information on the radio traffic sometimes doesn't always turn out to be correct, it provides some context to those first few minutes as officers were arriving to the campus.
Cobb County 911 received a call from what the radio traffic from dispatch to officers seemed to be one of the victims.
DISPATCHER: "McEachern High School, 2400 New MacLand Road, caller is advising he was shot in the leg in the parking lot."
As more information was being gathered by dispatch, they came back on the radio.
DISPATCHER: "Now they're advising two people hit, two people hit."
As numerous officers raced to the campus, those first officers on scene worked to save the two gunshot victims.
OFFICER: "Both victims have tourniquets applied, one to his leg, one to his arm, another one applied to a left leg."
As officers worked to stop the bleeding, other responding officers focused on finding the shooters.
OFFICER: "The suspect was running towards the football field."
Another officer alerted dispatch of the school being secured.
OFFICER: "They do have the school on lockdown at this time."
As multiple agencies were rushing to the scene to assist, supervisors with Cobb County Police were getting their teams in place, not knowing what they were racing towards at the school.
OFFICER: "All available special ops code 9 to that location."
The main priority was finding the shooters.
OFFICER: "We're clearing the theater, the football field, and the gym."
While at the crime scene, officers quickly learned the shooting was confined to the parking lot and actually caught on camera.
Students were sitting in the parking lot inside a car when they started rolling on a group of about 10 individuals. In the video, you see two of the young men start throwing punches.
At some point, they stop fighting, and that's when two men in the group who were not fighting pull out guns and start shooting at each other.
You see one young man fall to the ground and struggle to get back on his feet after the shooting.
The other individuals take off running.
As of late Thursday night, Cobb County Police have not confirmed if either shooter was in custody.
It was confirmed that the two gunshot victims were not students at the high school but that some of the individuals in the group do attend McEachern.