Fight Prompts Concern About 911 Response Time
EL PASO, TX. – An altercation in a store parking lot prompts questions and complaints about El Paso Police response times.
Several people, both men and women, found themselves right in the middle ofan altercation Wednesday afternoon, including two sisters who captured much of it on video.
One witness and her sister shot video of the altercation. The woman tells ABC-7, “I called 911 because it looked like it was going to escalate.” As the minutes pass, and those involved continue to get in each others face, the police are nowhere to be found.
“About five minutes later,I had to place another call, because it did get physical, they were actually pushing each other,”the witnesssaid. “I suddenly realized it was serious. It would go up and down, it would escalate and de-escalate. Between me and my sister, we called a lot andI saw other people calling, too.”
According to the video, at least thirty more minutes pass with no police in sight, so others try and break up the disturbance as Target employees watch and walk frightened customers to their cars. “What actually separated them was when one of the target employees came out and said, look, they are videotaping you guys, just leave. That’s when we saw them leave.”
So where were the police? Police Spokesman Chris Mears said the first officer to respond had to stop. “While he was on the way to the call, he observed an accident involving a motorcycle.”Why did it take nearly 40 minutes to get another officer there? “That’s a busy time of day forus. When you’re 300 officers understaffed there’s going to be times of the day where we’re struggling to get to the calls. This is an example,” Mears said.
“The police encourage us to call when we see anything suspicious or potentially dangerous and at that point,I think they should respond,” the woman added.
Police did finally arrive on the scene lastWednesday and there was a domestic violence complaint filed, which they are now investigating.
Police say they received five calls during the incident. The woman and her sister say they called at least seven times between them.ABC-7 wasable to verify four of them through 911 dispatch.
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Written for broadcast by Darren Hunt
Edited for KVIA.com by Miguel Martinez
