PAULDING COUNTY, Ga. — Every dispatcher prepares and trains for this call, but no one ever wants to hear it come over a law enforcement radio—officer down.
On Saturday, August 17, just 13 minutes into their shift, that call came over the radio inside Paulding County's Emergency 911 center.
"I will never not hear it," Paulding County E-911 Communications Center Deputy Director Christina Kelly said.
Deputy Brandon Cunningham and another responded to a domestic dispute in Hiram. Kelly said that based on the first call into dispatch, there were no indicators that this was a high-risk call. However, as anyone in law enforcement knows, domestic calls can be the most dangerous.
The Paulding County Sheriff's Office said within eight seconds of Cunningham and his partner arriving on the scene; they were met with gunfire. Cunningham was shot before he had a chance to return fire.
His partner was on the radio, informing dispatchers that Deputy Cunningham was down.
"You feel it in your chest, you feel it in your core," said Kelly, adding she could hear the pain in Cunningham's partner's voice, "It's alarming, you know it's a whole different tone of voice."
Kelly was not working on Saturday night but immediately came in to help the dispatchers who were not only handling the active shooter call but also answering other emergencies across the county.
"They were kind of in shock, but you can't be in shock," she said"
Kelly added, "They sat there in those chairs and continued to work, not knowing his condition and not being able to help."
She said that without hesitation, dispatchers who were not scheduled to work that night rushed into their dispatch center to help their colleagues.
"It's surreal, I don't think it's sunk in for everyone yet," said Kelly.
She couldn't speak more highly of her team, which never strayed when the men and women who protect Paulding County needed them more than ever.
"My team that was there did everything that they could do," Kelly said. "They pushed down their feelings and emotions. It's not easy to do that."
While dispatchers deal with high-stress situations daily, this was stressful and personal.
Even though many of them had never met Cunningham in person, they felt he was family.
"You could never have seen their face, never met them in person but you know them. You probably know their voice better than anybody else does and how to read their voices," Kelly said.
She said everyone in the dispatch center who worked with Cunningham had nothing but great things to say about him.
"They (dispatchers) would say I never met him but he was always so nice. It was always yes ma'am and thank you. He was always so kind to us," she recalled.
Kelly said her team has gone through debriefings and will continue offering them resources as they process that night and the loss of Cunningham.