[mjkolb02tj]

I can't imagine what the family is going through knowing that their daughter tried so hard to get help but the ones who are supposed to help didn't. I am interested in seeing if this ends up with a lawsuit or what may happen to the cops that took the calls.

http://www.local6.com/news/15330073/detail.html?rss=orlpn&psp=news

Mom: Police Told Daughter To Stop Calling Before Murder-Suicide

DELAND, Fla. -- A Central Florida woman whose 17-year-old daughter was killed in a murder-suicide apparently committed by her ex-boyfriend said the teen was told by police to stop calling for help or she'd be arrested.

Police said Clay Coffner shot his estranged girlfriend in the head outside her DeLand home Friday before turning the gun on himself.

Hall's mother, Sherry, said her daughter was concerned about Coffner and informed police.

In fact, Hall said her daughter called police so much that on Jan. 15 they threatened her.

"The police officer said if you call us one more time on him, I'm going to arrest you both," Sherry Hall said. "So, the day she died, she knew she couldn't talk to police. So, she handled it herself."

Michele Karpowicz said everyone noticed the warning signs before the homicide -- except police.

"I was going crazy," Hall's best friend said. "He was psycho, jealous and abusive."

Local 6 is trying to obtain a police call log to determine how many times the teen called police.

DeLand police officials have not responded to the allegations.

[workinprogress]

We had something like this happen up here in Detroit. Lady was shot in the head and the child called 911, police told them to hang up because they shouldn't prank the police. Turned out to be a big lawsuit because the woman was alive for some time even after being shot in the head and now that child got to watch his mother pass. People need to start taking their jobs much more seriously when they involve others lives.

[GasAxe]

Terrible tragedy.

I bet when the call logs come out, the story will change. Hard to believe that she was ignored by the cops. Nothing like an inflamatory headline to stir things up before the whole story comes out.

[cheap5.0]

Ive called 911 twice in my life, both times because of an auto accident (i was not involved)....both times they ask if anyone was hurt, i say i dont know (i could assume a 300C t-boning a F-150 at 40 mph would probably have some injury, but i dont know) and they tell me, "this is not what 911's for, hang up and call the police". WTF? I am in some city other than my local one, and they expect me to call information and ask for the local PD while these people could just be sitting in wreck losing minutes!?

Twice in 1 year i have seen pretty bad accidents, and twice i was told to hang up.

F*** 911

[hilhil45]

Doesn't say if she got a restraining order. If she didn't theres not much police can do.

[percent20]

I called 911 once in my life to report an oil container that blew up due to a lighting strike and they said ok we will get the fire department out there.

[tj99]

Originally Posted by cheap5.0

Ive called 911 twice in my life, both times because of an auto accident (i was not involved)....both times they ask if anyone was hurt, i say i dont know (i could assume a 300C t-boning a F-150 at 40 mph would probably have some injury, but i dont know) and they tell me, "this is not what 911's for, hang up and call the police". WTF? I am in some city other than my local one, and they expect me to call information and ask for the local PD while these people could just be sitting in wreck losing minutes!?

Twice in 1 year i have seen pretty bad accidents, and twice i was told to hang up.

F*** 911

Around here small town / rural area emergency response depts are giving up the old emergency numbers and telling people to call 911 for just about everything. Our local State Police non-emergency number tells you to hang up and call 911 if you need assistance.

I was a police dispatcher before cell phones, 911 and caller ID were around. We would check out every call. Most of the trouble makers we were on a first name basis with

I've been known to trace calls and call the parents to make sure everything was OK. After discussing with them the importance of playing with the phone the parents were usually shook up enough to make sure it didn't happen again. Of course that was 25+ years ago, today I would probably get in trouble for disturbing them.

I've called 911 a few times for accidents, once I thought this guy was dead. Turns out he was so drunk he managed to put his head under the steering wheel.

[alexrule123]

I called 911 to report a drunk driver and the operator didn't seem to even care and was giving me an attitude for even calling..

[Rollin]

Originally Posted by percent20

I called 911 once in my life to report an oil container that blew up due to a lighting strike and they said ok we will get the fire department out there.

Did they come?


Interestingly enough, my one call involved my Jeep. I was on my way to camping, and was following behind a car that was driving 20 in a 35 and weaving all over the place. I followed them for about 10 miles and called 911 about 5 miles after a came up behind him. After calling the police department, they told me to call another police department and that help would be coming in about a half hour. I was like wtf!!! I had one light out of two out lights out on my light bar, so I decided to give that a try. It worked. The guy pulled over thinking it was a spot light on a police car and I proceeded to wait 20 minutes until 2 cop cars came roaring up like they were in some sort of a hurry. The guy ended up being sleep-driving. I dont put much faith in 911 mostly because it takes sooooo long for anything to happen in a non-city setting.

[Ski01xj]

Originally Posted by percent20

I called 911 once in my life to report an oil container that blew up due to a lighting strike and they said ok we will get the fire department out there.

What else do you expect them to say?

These kinds of cases make me sick, because it ALWAYS takes something like this for action to be taken. I don't know why even a large department wouldn't take a suicide threat seriously. I can understand the police getting pissed if they routinely had to keep sending an officer out there and nothing was happening. However the article didn't mention that at all, so I can only get the feeling that they flat out ignored this girl, which is saddening.

[mjkolb02tj]

This recently happened in the area where my wife grew up.

http://www.nbc10.com/news/15254544/detail.html

Woman Dies In Fire As 911 Malfunctions
Police Say Issue Needs To Be Resolved

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. -- Controversy is swirling around the 911 audiotape of a deadly fire in Doylestown Borough.

The fire happened two weeks ago in the 300 block of Doyle Street in the Bucks County community.

When the fire started in her bed, 53-year-old Brenda Orr, who was disabled with multiple sclerosis, called for help but was put on hold.

Doylestown police have since released a statement acknowledging that the Bucks County 911 Center's system malfunctioned as she died inside her burning home.

The phone can be heard ringing seven times before an operator picks up.

Dispatcher 1: "911, can you hold one second, please?"

Orr: "No I can't. It's an emergency, 9-1-1 emergency. 3-4-0 Doyle, bed on fire."

Orr was put on hold, but she didn't have time, NBC 10's Justin Pizzi reported.

Police said Orr was smoking in her bed and couldn't get out as it erupted in flames on Jan. 29.

After 27 seconds -- or 55 seconds into the call -- another dispatcher started taking Orr's information, resulting in another delay of approximately 30 seconds.

Dispatcher 2: "Are you still in the house?"

Orr: "Yes."

Dispatcher 2: "Alright, well you want to get out of house?"

Orr: "No. I'm disabled. The bed is fully in flames."

"The lapse in response time was significant, and we asked the county to look at that lapse and see if we can't address it so that it doesn't happen again," said Doylestown Borough Police Chief James Donnelly.

"I think that it was a very unfortunate incident. I think there were some procedures that were not properly followed in the center, and they are being addressed," said Emergency Communications Director Brent Wiggins.

Donnelly released a statement outlining the series of events that took place. He said 911 calls are supposed to be answered within four rings.

Donnelly said after listening to the tape, it is not clear when the police and fire agencies were dispatched, but he said it appears they were dispatched sometime after the first minute. He said the initial operator did not handle the call properly and rescuers were delayed at least 41 seconds.

"Every second counts in response time," Donnelly said.

The Bucks County District Attorney said nothing criminal happened in the 911 center in this case. The workers are being retrained and the incident is still under investigation.

"We're very sorry and remorseful that a situation like this took place. We strive for those incidents not to happen in our center," Wiggins said.

"It can't happen again," Donnelly said.

Sergeant Scott Brobst released the following statement:

"While this almost one-minute delay may not have changed the outcome of this incident, we will never know if a rescue of Brenda Orr could have been effected if there was not a delay.

"In 40 seconds a fireman or police officer probably could have searched and exited the entire home. Could this have been enough time to make a difference? This issue needs to be addressed and resolved with the Bucks County 911 Center."

[percent20]

Originally Posted by tjwrangler89

Did they come?

yes, but there was no way they could actually put out the fire so they just let it burn and made sure nothing else out side of the oil deriks area lit on fire. Was actually on the highway right next to it and just happened to look over and see it explode on top from the strike was quite amazing to watch.

Video of the fire:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9cvDctenI4

Pictures taken:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roemerman/sets/72157594164104393/

Article about it:
http://firefightingnews.com/articleYSN-US.cfm?articleID=11626

Originally Posted by tjwrangler89

Interestingly enough, my one call involved my Jeep. I was on my way to camping, and was following behind a car that was driving 20 in a 35 and weaving all over the place. I followed them for about 10 miles and called 911 about 5 miles after a came up behind him. After calling the police department, they told me to call another police department and that help would be coming in about a half hour. I was like wtf!!! I had one light out of two out lights out on my light bar, so I decided to give that a try. It worked. The guy pulled over thinking it was a spot light on a police car and I proceeded to wait 20 minutes until 2 cop cars came roaring up like they were in some sort of a hurry. The guy ended up being sleep-driving. I dont put much faith in 911 mostly because it takes sooooo long for anything to happen in a non-city setting.

Citizens arrest is a cool right sometimes it can be useful.

Originally Posted by Ski01xj

What else do you expect them to say?

I just used it as an example of calling 911 working.

[Rusty Scupper]

I wonder how this will unfold. Doesn't seem like all the info is out yet.

Questions I have are:

1. Was there a restraining order? If not why? Not that they do much but you have to start somewhere.
2. Why was the girl calling, where were the parents?
3. Who is Michele Karpowicz listed in the article (Halls Best Friend) - is she the girl or mothers best friend?

If "everybody" is aware of the situation then remove her from that enviornment. Sounds to me there are a lot of people could have made a difference.

[Indy]

Originally Posted by Ski01xj

What else do you expect them to say?

These kinds of cases make me sick, because it ALWAYS takes something like this for action to be taken. I don't know why even a large department wouldn't take a suicide threat seriously. I can understand the police getting pissed if they routinely had to keep sending an officer out there and nothing was happening. However the article didn't mention that at all, so I can only get the feeling that they flat out ignored this girl, which is saddening.

Dunno, "Hall said her daughter called police so much..." From experience it's not uncommon for some people to call the police 10-15 times a day to complain about their ex/current live-in just because they're having a disagreement. PD shows up, guy leaves, PD leaves, girl calls guy and asks him to come back, they start arguing again, girls calls police again ad infinitum. Day after day after day, same people same call. In those cases ya, they're both told to knock their **** off. It's unfortunate that this one ended this way. I'd be interested to see the long term call log and dispositions for this to see if it falls into the above pattern, or if there was a failing on the LE's part.

[mhepner]

Originally Posted by hilhil45

Doesn't say if she got a restraining order. If she didn't theres not much police can do.

For what? Restraining orders are no better than the paper they're written on.