5/12/2013

Dallas: Store owner uses gun to stop four robbers, police don't arrive for 75 minutes after 911 call

The 911 call was somewhat difficult to understand, but that isn't the issue.  Whatever the reason, the point is that it took 75 minutes after the 911 call for the police to arrive.  My point isn't to blame the police dispatcher or an immigrant who may not be able to speak without an accent, but to note the benefit of letting people own guns for self protection.  The 911 call was made after the attack and shooting had already occurred so the police response time at that point was irrelevant.  
On Sunday night, four men tried to rob Pepe's Grocery on Bernal Drive in West Dallas. One of them was carrying an assault rifle, but the manager of the closed store drew first, hitting his target with two shots from his .38. The would-be robbers fled, leaving a trail of blood behind.The manager, Joe Cho, called police and waited. And waited. And waited. And finally, 20 minutes after shooting an intruder, he locked up and went home. Officers arrived at the store some 75 minutes later.
"I'm at home safe, everything, I relax right now," Cho told the Morning News' Scott Goldstein. "Then you call me about an hour something later, you want me to come back over here." . . .
Who was to blame for the delay?
The Dallas Police Department was quick to shift the blame over to Cho. A spokesman said,  “The caller had a very heavy accent and was speaking very quickly…The call taker had a very difficult time understanding the information and did not hear the caller say ‘shot’ or ‘shoot.’” . . . 
I could understand much of the call, and what I couldn't understand the first time through I figured out after listening to it a couple more times.  If the dispatcher couldn't understand whether the caller was saying "shot" or "shoot," she should have asked him to stay on the phone longer.  In any case, these calls are recorded, and the dispatcher could have presumably listened to it again if necessary.

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