Callers to 911 Differed Over Race of Gunman

Terrified witnesses and others caught in the immediate chaos of the assault on the North Valley Jewish Community Center gave authorities conflicting descriptions of the gunman, according to 911 emergency tapes released Wednesday.

As the man later alleged to be Buford O. Furrow Jr. finished spraying the Granada Hills facility with bullets, leaving five wounded, including three children, some frantic callers told police the assailant had been described as an Asian man, while another called him white.

The tapes starkly portrayed the horror and confusion at the center as an employee implored police to rush to the child-filled facility:

“Please hurry. He’s got a huge machine gun. I don’t know how many people are hurt, but there’s tons of children at the summer camp here,” she pleaded, sobbing.

Dispatchers can be heard sending police and paramedics to the scene, while pressing witnesses for a description of the gunman.

“Ma’am, do you know what the person looks like by any chance?” a dispatcher asked the community center employee. “They’re already on their way.”

“He was a heavy-set man,” the woman replied.

“Was he black, white or Hispanic?” the dispatcher inquired.

“Glasses, bald at the top. . . .”

“It’s hard to understand you,” said the dispatcher. “Is he black, white or Hispanic?”

“What?”

“Black, white or Hispanic?”

“He looks white. I just saw him running across. . . .”

In a second recorded 911 call, a panicked center employee told the dispatcher that the assailant was armed with a shotgun.

“Do you have any idea if there was anybody else?” a dispatcher asked.

“I don’t know. I am under the desk,” the employee responded.

A third call came when staff from the center fled to the convalescent hospital next door.

“They’re saying an Asian man just shot somebody,” said a caller who identified himself as an administrator at the hospital, apparently referring to witnesses who had fled the community center.

Asked for more information, the man handed the phone to a woman, who reported: “Somebody said they saw an Asian man.”

Police arrived at the center within four minutes of the shooting, which occurred about 10:50 a.m. on Aug. 10, but the gunman was gone. Despite a massive search that day, the assailant eluded capture.

The next morning, Furrow, a 37-year-old white supremacist, turned himself in at the FBI office in Las Vegas.

Furrow allegedly fired about 70 shots in the center, striking a 5-year-old boy, two 6-year-old boys, a 68-year-old receptionist and a 16-year-old camp counselor.

Wounded most grievously was Benjamin Kadish, the 5-year-old, who was hit by two bullets, one pulverizing his thigh, the other tearing through his abdomen.

Doctors had feared for Benjamin’s life, but after exhaustive rounds of surgery at two hospitals he continues to improve and is now in fair condition, said Steve Rutledge, spokesman for Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.

On Tuesday, the boy was able to sit in a wheelchair for the first time. “He’s much more mobile now, and talking. It’s just a matter of healing now,” Rutledge said.

Doctors believe that Benjamin, who has a cast on his left thigh, may be released in the middle or toward the end of next week, Rutledge said.

After the shooting, Furrow allegedly stole a car at gunpoint.

He reportedly told authorities that his rampage was intended to strike a blow at American Jews.

In the end, the only one of the alleged gunman’s victims to die was not Jewish. Furrow allegedly said that while driving in Chatsworth, he saw a letter carrier on his rounds. Joseph Ileto, a 39-year-old Filipino American, died after being shot nine times.

A member of the racist Aryan Nations, Furrow told authorities that he shot Ileto because he was nonwhite and was a government employee.

Times staff writer Caitlin Liu contributed to this story.