911 calls in New Jersey supermarket shooting: ‘I don’t want to die!’

The 911 recordings capture voices that are frantic, frightened and pleading for help after a gunman walked into a New Jersey supermarket in the early morning hours and opened fire.

“I don’t want to die, please,” a woman tells the 911 dispatcher in a raw, ragged whisper. She explains that she and others have locked themselves in a back room but still fear the man with the gun can hear them, and find them.

“Hurry up, please please please,” she pleads.

Another caller, out of breath from running for his life, reports the scene in staccato sentences. “Old Bridge Pathmark. Guy with a shotgun. He’s blowing the place apart... Please send as many people as possible.”

Within seconds of those phone calls, three people would be dead: Cristina LoBrutto, 18, a recent high school graduate, and Bryan Breen, 24, both employees of the supermarket in Old Bridge, N.J., plus the gunman himself.

The gunman was identified as ex-Marine Terence Tyler, 23, and there have been conflicting reports about whether he was still working at the supermarket at the time of the Aug. 31 shooting, or had been fired after walking off the job that evening.

Fox News reported that Tyler’s relatives say he was depressed after leaving the military, and still distraught over his mother’s death. Regardless, police say, he killed two employees before turning his assault rifle on himself.

The supermarket was closed to the public at the time, but the employees working the night shift inside said Tyler was dressed head-to-toe in military gear.

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