Saturday, September 24, 2016

Transcripts of 911 calls reveal Pulse shooter's terrorist motives


The conversations between the Orlando Pulse nightclub attacker and Orlando PD negotiators was made public recently. The release of this information provides insight into the interaction between a negotiator and subject and how the skills taught in crisis hostage negotiation course are used, even in dire situations such as what occurred in Florida.

In particular, note the use of active listening skills such as reflect/mirroring, moving from large/abstract conversations to the situation at hand, and open-ended questions. 
From the article:

The transcripts were made public after the Federal Bureau of Investigations approved releasing calls or records not exempt under Florida public-records law. The city did not release the 28 minutes of audio from which the transcripts were written.
At 2:48 a.m., the negotiator called Mateen, who was holding hostages inside the club. Throughout the calls, Mateen said he committed the attack to “to stop the U.S. air strikes” on Iraq and Syria.
Here's an excerpt from the transcript. I highly recommend you read the article and the full transcript at the links below. 

SUSPECT: ...They are killing too many children, they are killing too many women, okay? 
NEGOTIATOR: I understand that. Here is why I'm here right now. I'm with the Orlando police. Can you tell me what you know about what's going on tonight? 

SUSPECT: What's going on is that I feel the pain of the people getting killed in Syria and Iraq and all over the Muslim (unidentified word). 
NEGOTIATOR: Okay. So have you done something about that? 
SUSPECT: Yes, I have. 
NEGOTIATOR: Tell me what you did, please. SUSPECT: You already know what I did. 
NEGOTIATOR: Look, I'm trying to figure out
how to keep you safe and how to get this resolved peacefully because I'm not a politician, I'm not a government. All I can do is help individuals and I want to start with helping you. 

Read more from the Orlando Sentinel [HERE] and read the transcript [HERE].