VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Earlier this year, the city of Virginia Beach experienced a tragedy when police officers Cameron Girvin and Christopher Reese were shot and killed while conducting a traffic stop.

The killer then took his own life.

A dispatcher who was working that night spoke with 10 On Your Side about the moment the call came in.

For Taye Springs, it’s more of a calling than an occupation.

“I like helping people,” Springs said. “It’s 100% always been my thing. I did EMS before this for four years, so it’s definitely helping people and knowing that I’m making a difference in people’s lives.”

After six years of putting on the headset, Springs has heard just about everything.

“We get a lot of calls in here,” Springs said. “It’s no specific ones. It’s just a wide variety.”

Until a late night call Feb. 21 put Springs and the entire Virginia Beach emergency call center on hold.

“I was on a 911 phone call when everything started happening,” she said. “Prior to that, it seemed like the run of the mill Friday. It didn’t seem to me like anything intense was in the air for me, personally, at least. Then everything broke loose.

A room typically calm during chaos began to tremble.

“And hearing my coworkers voices who normally aren’t as heightened be a little more serious in their tone, and you can hear the emotion around the room, and you could feel it,” she said. “Kind of just trying to figure out what was occurring because there was a lot of confusion, a lot of disbelief.”

When reality set in that two Virginia Beach Police officers were shot, she thought of someone he knew.

“Hmm, this could be one of my friends husbands,” she said.

Officer Cameron Girvin’s wife, Jessica, is a 911 dispatcher and friend of Springs.

“We’ve texted back and forth,” Springs said. “She knows she has a team around her. She knows her family is here, extended family obviously, but she knows she has a support team when she needs us.”