1999 August 10th. U.S. Los Angeles, North Valley Jewish Community Center:
At 10:40 AM, a self-proclaimed white supremacist entered the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills, a quiet suburb in the northern part of Los Angeles. There were about 70 children, ages 5-12, and some staff members in the building at the time. The offender immediately opened fire in the front hallway with a machine gun. He shot about 70 rounds and wounded five people.

At 10:49 AM frantic calls for help were received at the 9-1-1 center. Within four minutes the first units of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) arrived on scene. Outside the building they found a 16-year-old female bleeding from a gunshot wound. No one knew the location of the shooter, although some suspected that he might still be in the facility. The patrol officers entered the building with guns drawn, instead of locking up community center and calling in the SWAT team. Inside they could still smell and see the gunsmoke in the air and see the damaged caused by the bullets. They encountered additional victims.
Arriving shortly after 11:00 AM, the commander of the Devonshire Police Division, Captain John Egan, assumed command and established a command post inside the XXXX building adjacent to the community center.
Police focused on securing the location, evacuating children and staff to safety, searching the area for the shooting suspect(s), and gathering intelligence. In addition, the police in the relatively peaceful Devonshire Division had to handle three other major occurrences nearby: a car hijacking at 11:10 AM, the homicide of postal worker Joe Ileto at 12:00 PM, and a suspicious van loaded with ammunition, paramilitary equipment, and grenades. At this time it was not clear whether these crime scenes were related.

At 10:50 AM, the Los Angeles City Fire Department (LAFD) initially dispatched Rescue Ambulance #87 and engine #77 to a shooting scene at Hayvenhurst and Rinaldi Street. Within minutes, police requested additional rescue units and the first-in engine, #77, described the scope of the incident. More resources were sent. Within 30 minutes, six fire companies (two light forces and four engines), seven rescue ambulances, one rescue helicopter, two battalion chiefs (#12 and #15), and Division 3 Chief Robert Teachenor had arrived on scene. The fire incident command post was set up outside, near the entrance to the church building. A unified command post with the police was not set up.
The first fire unit on scene, Rescue Ambulance #87, was staffed with paramedics Todd Carb and Daniel Jordan. Three victims were seen outside the building. As LAPD officers moved in to search the community center, they were followed by LAFD paramedics and firefighters. At this time the location of the shooter was still unknown and, therefore, the building was not safe. Todd Carb, a paramedic veteran with 19 years experience found 5-year-old Benjamin K. suffering from two gunshot wounds, one in his abdomen, one to his upper leg. The boy was in deep haemorrhagic shock due to massive blood loss and was obviously near death. His blood pressure was too low to measure and his collapsed veins were too flat to start an IV. Cutting corners and avoiding time-consuming treatment, paramedics Card and Jordan decided to rush the little boy in their ambulance to nearby Holy Cross Medical Center as fast as possible. The official incident report states that the boy arrived at the trauma center within 15 minutes after the first ambulance dispatch. Minutes later trauma surgeons began with a six-hour operation to save Benjamin's life.
Meanwhile, paramedics from engine #77 set up triage and treatment procedures for the other victims, 68-year-old Isabelle S., 16-year-old Mindy F. (both staff members), and 6-year old James Z., found in the entrance area of the building. They were treated and transported in stable condition within thirty minutes. Both females were sent to Holy Cross Emergency Department, and the little boy to a local hospital.
Six-year-old Joshua S. was discovered suffering from a gunshot wound, but otherwise in good condition. He was airlifted to Children's Hospital in Hollywood, the only pediatric trauma center in the Los Angeles region. Within minutes news helicopters were over the scene broadcasting in every major U.S. city and in less than two hours the media had responded with a dizzying number of camera crews, microphones, and reporters at the scene. Fortunately, the LAPD as well as the LAFD had experienced public information officers on hand to deal with the media and provide facts in a professional manner. In a very short time, the significance of the incident had become obvious. The Mayor, the Police Chief, and other city officials showed up at the location ninety minutes after the shooting, received a briefing from Police-IC Captain Egan, and gave an on-site press-conference. This placed additional pressure on the incident staff. They had to make sure that the area was safe and the shooter was not in a nearby hidden place, and take time to brief the officials. Nearly 200 children had been dropped off at the community center that morning. Three groups were on field trips at the time of the shooting. Due to the immediate media coverage and the widespread use of cellular phones, many parents showed up desperately looking for their kids. This caused tremendous tension and was a big challenge in the incident handling. First of all, relatives of the victims had to be identified and filtered out from the crowd. In one case, the parents of an injured child were escorted and brought to the hospital in a fire vehicle. LAPD was in charge of the incident. Because of the unexpectedly large scale of necessary activities (organizing and communicating resources and assignments, gathering intelligence, etc.), coupled with the three concurrent crime scenes, the Fire Department assisted them. The parent-child reunification was handled principally by the LAFD.

By about 12:30 PM, the authorities had contacted the family members of the injured, and all other parents/relatives were assured that their children were not hurt. This calmed the crowd a little bit, but there was still a high level of anxiety and uncertainty. This distress was triggered and boosted by countless media and camera crews who were on the lookout for crying and desperate parents. The LAFD brought in their staff psychologist. He assisted in the critical incident stress debriefing for the parents. The next step was to identify the location of every child. The kids were on three different field trip spots and at two different places in the incident area. Police units were sent to cover the field trip locations to ensure accountability and prevent further occurrences. Later, the suspect in the shooting turned himself in to the FBI in Las Vegas, Nevada. LA police officers were honored at a City Council meeting for their actions during the incident, and LA firefighters were invited to a celebration at the Community Center on August 21st, where they were given a standing ovation from parents, kids, and staff. All five injured people are back home without disabilities and fully recovered from their wounds. As a special sign of support from the LAFD, the last child to be released from the hospital was given a ride home in a fire truck.