By Khalida Sarwari
The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office today released 911 tapes from the deadly shooting rampage at a Cupertino quarry two weeks ago.
“Have you ever seen a massacre?” One caller who had been shot asked an emergency dispatcher. “That’s what it looks like right here in the office.”
On Oct. 5, 49-year-old Shareef Allman, described by authorities as a disgruntled employee, opened fire on about 15 of his fellow employees at a 4 a.m. meeting at the Lehigh Southwest Cement Plant, located at 24001 Stevens Creek Blvd.
One caller who was breathing heavily told the dispatcher that the shooter “came late to work and he got a cup of coffee.” He said the man went outside the back door and when he returned, he had an assault rifle and a handgun.
Allman ultimately shot nine people and killed three before fleeing.
The fatally wounded were Manuel Pinon, 48, of Newman, John Robert Vallejos, 51, and Mark Munoz, 59, both of San Jose.
The 911 caller who was one of the victims told the dispatcher he’d been shot twice in the arms and once in the leg.
“But it’s not me I’m worried about,” he said to the dispatcher. “It’s more my supervisor, he’s got two by the heart.”
When instructed by the dispatcher to use a cloth to help his colleague, the man said, “There’s blood all over. No cloth is going to stop what’s going on right here.”
He identified the shooter as Allman and said he had gone “postal.”
“He pulled out an AK-47 and started shooting everybody,” the caller said.
After leaving the quarry, Allman shot a woman during an attempted carjacking hours later in a Hewlett-Packard company parking lot.
The caller who reported the incident was a woman who was passing through the area.
She told the dispatcher that she saw an unconscious woman lying on the ground.
“One guy was kneeling over her and he was trying to take something from her,” she said. “I was worried about her.”
Allman escaped and fled to a nearby neighborhood, where he was found the following morning crouched behind a car parked on Lorne Way.
He died during a confrontation with deputies, ending a massive manhunt by law enforcement agencies.
The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office initially reported that three deputies had shot and killed Allman, but last week the medical examiner’s office announced that though he had several other wounds, Allman died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
