June 25, 2008
Shooting, dealing, and no response from 911
12 Comments »Monday night, June 23rd around 11pm, I felt what it must be like to live in Iraq. Automatic weapon fire was going off, round after round, after round….I called 911 to report the sounds coming from Nelson and Salem Streets. No one answered 911 and no one ever called back. If I had a sick baby or was an elder experiencing a heart attack-there was no way to get help from our city public safety system.
A few minutes after I called 911 and got no response, I started hearing sirens. I spoke to a neighbor the next day; she told me she called 911 the same night and got no response either and no call back.
I reported this to Lt. Laino from first precinct on June 24th at 5:30pm. He said he would look into the 911 incidents and get back to me. He had no knowledge about the cause of the shooting other than that someone was shot in the chest.
Backup a bit: June 22-I observed a drug deal involving a maroon, four-door car and three African-American (AA) males, one in the car (heavy set, dark skin, one inch afro-hair style; outside the car was: one light skinned AA-male around 5’11” very short hair, handsome, about 190 lbs-strong-medium build-white T-shirt-black shorts-didn’t see the shoes; next to him stood a dark-skinned AA-male with thick corn-row dreads-three or four prominent ones. He also had a Goat-T on his face. He stands about 5’8” and weighs about 145 or 155lbs-around 30-35 years old. White T-shirt, blue-jean shorts-didn’t see the shoes. The guys not driving the car did a hand-to-hand drug deal near the corner of Campbell Ave. and Vista Street in broad daylight around 5pm. I called it in to the police, but didn’t see any police vehicle touring the area.
I learned yesterday that a neighbor saw the same dark-skinned corn-row/dread guy shooting at her dog later that same night on June 22nd.
I propose we begin a log of neighborhood observations with precise days, times, details. Maybe keep a logbook by your phone. Every time you see a drug deal or hear gun fire-call 911 and report it and then log it in your book. Please note whether or not the police showed up after you called. If they did, what time did they come. If you post your observations on the Greater Fulton website, consider signing it anonymously- I say this because folks running the narcotics game in Greater Fulton have been doing it for a long time, they probably have their own website!
We called the police three times within an hour timespan and someone picked up everytime. We are closer to the Henrico border and we had our street completely blocked off with Henrico police and a helicopter overhead.
911 tends not to respond when people call and say they are having Heart Attacks, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised they don’t respond to gun fire. Sometimes I think hey don’t respond because the cops sitting in their cop cars are thinking “Ah, we will just let them shoot each other.” It is sad that these drug dealers care nothing for human life, they think they can just shoot each other and get away with it. What is even sadder is that that some cops in Richmond feel the same way towards human life, at least when it comes to drug dealers.
Shooting at her dog?!? I think i would have to shoot someone who went after my dog. Senseless acts of cruelty towards animals.
The police cannot fix what is wrong with our neighborhood. For eight years we’ve been asking them how we can help and their only solution is to tell us to dial 911.
I’ve dialed 911 at least a hundred times in 8 years. I don’t think it has made a difference. Sadly, we’ve become used to the gunshots and only call 911 if it sounds like it is on our block.
I will say 911 operators have always answered my calls. One told me not to worry about the gunshots if they were fired in rapid succession. She said it was probably someone just testing out to decide if they wanted to buy it. (puh-leez!)
I think if we work toward erradicating poverty we will be a healthier and happier community overall.
So when is the next Neighborhood Watch meeting?
Test
This incident happend two doors down from me. I spoke with the man whoes home it happend in front of. He said a few bullets actually came through his house. One hit the wall just above his daughter’s head while she was asleep.
He described this with more than a little distress.
The police were already in the area because someone had reported hearing gun shots about 20 minutes earlier. They were able to respond very quickly.
I feel the same about calling 911. It seems ponitless, but it really can make a difference!
It is absolutely unacceptable that 911 goes unanswered. Also unacceptable is the lack of response; especially if you have been told someone will show up.
Push this issue to highest level possible (police chief? Mayor? above?) DO NOT ACCEPT lack of response to 911.
I live in Church Hill and I have never had this problem. We cannot allow segments of the city to be ignored by the police.
I just spoke with the Police Department and received an email concerning this incident. The Operations Manager for the 911 center indicated that she had been contacted by Lt. Laino on 6/29 to investigate this incident. The following are the results of the investigation:
“On June 29, 2008, from 23:08 to 23:12 hours the 911 center received 26 phone calls for the Salem Street incident. Four of the calls were what we call abandoned, meaning that either the caller hung up before the line was answered or due to the call volume the incoming lines were busy. Thirteen of these calls were entered into our computer system (CAD) for this particular event.”
Maybe the lost calls were just a fluke. She really sound sincere and the dedication of the department to serve all members of the community.
I’ve been doing research on this area because I’ve recently found a house for sale that seems promising in the neighborhood. I’ve been through the neighborhood at night and didn’t see any suspicious activity but then I came across this site. I was wondering if anyone could tell me about the area around the 2000 block of National Street. Do things like this happen around there as well? Thank you to anyone who is willing to give me any information!
One of the interesting resources of this site is the crime data and crime map, via Richmond Crime using the data published by the Richmond City Police Department.
Whoa… I just read the entire string of posts and I am pissed. I live on the Henrico side and have always had police respond when I call. There are a host of problems noted above and the only way to stop the madness is for the community to take action. OMG – bullet holes in a little girl’s bedroom wall above her head, shooting at someone’s dog, unanswered 911 calls. We definitely need to utilize the suggestion of call logs and get a phone tree going to report crimes – drug deals, shootings, break-ins and definitely animal cruelty! I used to live in both the Fan and then Northside. Both neighborhoods had the neighborhood patrol (in cars) and it worked well. It’s not hard to set-up – just need volunteers, walkie-talkies (or you can use cell phones).
Caitlin,
I just moved into a house in the 2000 block of National. Honestly, it is a quiet block. I did hear gun fire the weekend of the fourth and it made me quite nervous eventhough it was not in the immediate area. The neighbors that I have met are very nice and are very diverse which is a plus. They (we) look out for eachother which is another plus. If you buy, that is one less house that is unoccupied and another good neighbor on the block. Hopefully, with the development of White Oak and the need to attract paying customers who want to feel safe, things will continue to improve.