Lawsuit filed in 911 tragedy

This poor little boy. If you've heard the 911 tape, you can hear the frustration in his voice when the operator threatens to send the police. If only the little guy had said, "OK...send the police! Maybe they can help!" It sounds like their 911 operators need some serious retraining.

Reply

I agree...this situation is mind-boggling. I hope the woman is reprimanded to the full extent that her district allows, aside from any legal consequenses that come from it. I understand that she is still dispatching while the internal investigation is pending? Hopefully I am misinformed.

This also reminds me of a while ago where a woman was pushed out of a moving car, her boyfriend had kidnapped her and ultimately killed her and shoved her out of the car...another person driving saw it happened and called the police...the witness informed the dispatcher that the two were fighting and that the woman had fallen out of the car and the dispatcher responded by saying "Well, wouldn't she be screaming or something, maybe they are playing around."

Yea, I would throw myself out of a car for fun. That is very much my idea of 'foreplay'.

Reply

Normally, I'm the first to roll my eyes at the inevitable lawsuit. NOT this time.

There is some serious issues occuring within the Detroit organization, and someone needs to do a serious internal audit. I would much rather be a little embarrassed by a Police Officer if my child accidentally called 911 and know that if they need to call for real, someone WILL come. I'd LOVE to see the training materials.

Reply

What is really sad about this situation is that the little boy was scolded by a SECOND 911 operator and she still didn't send the police to his home right away. For it to happen with one, totally not acceptable, is bad enough. But he had the same reaction from TWO different operators.

I hope they get more than the $million they are asking for in the lawsuit. May throw a wakeup call at our 911 system. This happens a lot more than anyone realizes and it SHOULD never happen!

Reply

Wow...it was two different operators? I thought he called twice and talked to the same person both times. Either way, this is totally unacceptable. If that operator had really been listening she'd have heard the exasperation in his voice when he said, "Agh!" and hung up. It was obvious listening to his voice that something WAS really going on that he needed help with...that his mom really was in need of help. I'm so sad for this little man who tried to do the right thing and to help his mom but was totally ignored. I hope he has a lot of loving family around him right now who can assure him that it was NOT his fault that this happened and that he did all he could do for his mother.

Reply

I don't anything about the second 911 call but I remember hearing on the news that this 911 lady was still working!--that blew me away!

Reply

I also read that 2 separate operators talked to the boy and both told him to stop playing games. He hung up when the first one told him he would be in trouble when the police got there. They never did send EMS, just a police car to go scold the boy. Incredible!!!

Reply

I will most definitely be teaching my children to say, "yes please do send the police"! I mean, geez! I do hope for the sake of the child's future, he gets at least enough to further his education later and become a valuable citizen with a lesson to teach. I'm just sorry it has to happen that he loses a parent in order to wake folks up to the ignorance of some people.

I always thought it was standard to make a call back and such even if the operator thought it was a prank...if she has just send the damn police quickly like she threatened....

People, this breaks my heart..a parent does everything to teach her child how to handle a scarry situation correctly and look at the outcome...scarry, pitiful and scarry!

Reply

I think after hearing about this, I will be teaching my son to also know how to dial the number of the local police/fire station/Emergency Room (all of which will be posted by all phones in the house). Most have someone around, even during the night, and (at least in small towns) are likely to offer help. Another idea would be to post a number by the phone of a trusted neighbor, friend, etc. If the child runs into trouble (I can't even believe I'm writing this) with 911 operators, he can call the friend, who can ALSO call someone for help. And perhaps show up to help, as well.

Frightening stuff, and my heart has broken in little pieces for this boy. I hope he becomes a millionaire off of this woman and the Detroit 911 "system". Usually I don't go for huge financial settlements, but if ever there was a situation...

Reply