8 MINUTES TO RESPOND

——————————————————————————–
—– Original Message —–
From: “Phil Parke”
Sent: Tuesday, August 27, 2002 9:45 AM
Subject: FW: 8 MINUTES TO RESPOND

>
>
> ———-
>
>
>
> 48 MINUTES TO RESPOND TO A 911 CALL? ANYONE WHO PUTS THEIR CONFIDENCE IN
> THE HANDS OF THESE CLOWNS IS ASKING TO DIE.
>
> Tape of 911 call: Victim begs for help for 48 minutes By KATE PESZNECKER
> Anchorage Daily News August 23, 2002
>
> ANCHORAGE, Alaska -
>
> Police tapes released Thursday detail a critically wounded woman’s
harrowing
> 48-minute wait for help as confused officers wandered nearby streets and
> dispatchers disregarded the address she gave them, relying instead on
> inadequate computer information.
>
> Minutes into Patti Godfrey’s 12:30 a.m. 911 call on Aug. 3, she also gave
> dispatchers the name and phone number of her daughter and repeatedly
begged
> them to call her. They didn’t make that call, nor did they ask Godfrey for
> specific directions to her house until about 40 minutes into the call.
>
> As Godfrey pleaded and prayed on the phone, one floor below was the body
of
> her husband, Glenn Godfrey, 53. Just before 12:30 that morning, police
say,
> he was shot to death by a distraught Karen Brand, with whom he’d had an
> affair. Brand, 33, then shot Patti four times in an upstairs hallway and
> retreated downstairs. Police say Brand had entered the Godfreys’ home
while
> they were gone and waited in a closet for their return.
>
> “I’ve been shot, please,” Godfrey, 52, said in her first words to the 911
> dispatcher.
>
> Dispatcher Billy Miller grilled her: Who shot her? Where was Karen? What
did
> Karen look like? Where was the gun?
>
> Less than two minutes later, Godfrey said, “I – she just shot herself, I
> believe.”
>
> “Did you hear more shots?” asked Miller, one of two who would talk to
> Godfrey during the call.
>
> “Yes. Just now.”
>
> “From where?”
>
> “Downstairs. Please hurry. Please hurry.”
>
> Godfrey at that point was alert and responsive to questions. She gave
> dispatchers her daughter’s name and phone number. She described Brand -
her
> hair color, her job – and recited by memory the last three numbers of the
> license plate on Brand’s tan Jeep Cherokee.
>
> She also confirmed the Godfreys’ address: 22953 Eagle River Road, at Mile
> 4.6.
>
> But dispatchers did not ask her for directions, which they typically do,
> Deputy Police Chief Mark Mew said. Because the address Godfrey gave did
not
> appear in the database, the computer gave similar but incorrect addresses
> and officers could not find the right house.
>
> Several minutes into the call, believing cops were at Godfrey’s door,
> dispatchers assured her help was just outside.
>
> It wasn’t.
>
> They told Godfrey to hang on.
>
> Godfrey often prayed.
>
> “I’m begging,” she said, drawing deep breaths. “Save Glenn’s life. Save
> Glenn’s life. Lord Jesus, please help us. Save Glenn’s life. Give us
another
> chance. Lord Jesus. Please God, help him.”
>
> She described her injuries in detail. One bullet had ripped through her
> stomach, another through her leg, and her right arm was nearly severed,
she
> said. Later, doctors had to augment the bone of her right arm with a metal
> plate.
>
> More than once during the 911 call, Godfrey announced she would soon die.
>
> She swung between meditative prayer and utter hopelessness.
>
> “Would you please . . . somebody out there to help me?” she said.
>
> “Yes, they are out there to help you, Trish,” dispatcher Jeri Wallin said.
> “They are. We’re coming in to help you as soon as we can get in the door,
> OK?”
>
> “Please just break it open.”
>
> “Listen to me,” Wallin said. “We’ve got officers out there. The medics are
> out there, and as soon as we can get in that door that’s what we’re going
to
> do.”
>
> But there were no officers or medics in front of the Godfrey house. With
> each passing minute, Godfrey sounded more angry, telling them they weren’t
> helping her and she thought they were lying. She began mumbling in another
> language as dispatchers asked her what her house looked like.
>
> “We just got to make sure we’re going to the right house,” Wallin said.
>
> “I don’t hear any battering,” Godfrey said.
>
> “OK, they’re all out there. Trust me. They’re out there.”
>
> “Well, then get up the stairs. She’s not here.”
>
> “OK, did you hear her leave?”
>
> “I – I quit,” Godfrey said.
>
> Dispatchers began repeatedly asking Godfrey whether her house was at Eagle
> Glacier Loop and Columbia Glacier Loop.
>
> It wasn’t.
>
> Late in the call, Godfrey hung up on the operators. They called her back
> immediately and heard the sound of dialing. When Godfrey realized she was
on
> the phone with them, she again killed the connection.
>
> When dispatchers successfully got through again, Godfrey, sounding tired,
> said, “Please let me talk to my kids.” And a moment later, she hollered,
“I
> want my kids!”
>
> Wallin, speaking firmly, told Godfrey they needed her to tell them exactly
> how to get to her home.
>
> “We can’t find your house!” Wallin said urgently.
>
> And Godfrey gave broken directions, mumbling.
>
> “Why, why, why can’t they find it?” Godfrey asked.
>
> “I don’t know the answer to that question,” Wallin said. She said help was
> coming. “Stay with me.”
>
> Wallin encouraged Godfrey to yell if it helped.
>
> And Godfrey yelled.
>
> “Please! Pleeeeeeease! Glenn! Glenn!”
>
> “I want you to stay with me, stay mad, OK? Stay mad. . . . Keep yelling.
> . .
> . Keep talkin’ . . . “
>
> “I’ll talk to . . . if you get somebody else here now. . . . I’ll talk to
> you if you . . . break the door down! God!” Godfrey yelled. “Where . . .
> Man! I cannot believe how long it’s taking you.”
>
> “Hey, c’mon, keep goin’ on . . . keep on goin’, keep goin’,” Wallin said.
>
> “In the name of Jesus I’m hurting.”
>
> “OK. We’re gettin’ ready to make entry right now, OK?”
>
> “I hear ‘em,” Godfrey said quietly. “I hear ‘em.”
>
> It was nearly 1:19 a.m.
>
> Mew again apologized Thursday for that night. He urged people to remember
> that most 911 calls go smoothly.
>
> “It was a horrible night,” Mew said.
>
> The department is conducting an internal review, both of its staff and its
> technology, he said. It also plans to have an improved, updated database
in
> place in as soon as a year, he said.
>
> Bowden E. Russell
>
>
> Bob Mueller Ohioans For Concealed Carry www.OhioCCW.org
>
http://www.OhioCCW.org>;