Complaint: 911 Too Long To Respond; Victim Dies

It’s a horrifying experience no parent ever wants to go through. Their child bleeding to death, in front of their eyes — emergency crews allegedly unreachable.

It’s a situation one El Paso family said they experienced last month.

According to loved ones, Jesse Reade was under the carport at his grandmother’s house with a friend on March 15.

They said Reade was handling a pistol when it went off. Reade died two hours later at a local hospital.

Outraged family and neighbors said it took at least 15 minutes before someone answered the line at the El Paso County 911 office.

“His friend brought over a gun and he — later on, I heard that he had said, ‘I forgot to tell Jesse it was loaded.’ But it was a freak accident. Jesse knew how to handle guns,” said Reade’s mother, Helen Reade Curl. “I miss him. I miss him,” she said while shaking her head.

Still in disbelief, Curl recounted the night her 27-year-old son died. She and others who were near Reade’s grandmother’s house when the shooting happened said they called 911 right away, but it seemed it took forever for anyone to pick up on the other end.

Barbara Ramirez was coming home from the grocery store with her mother when she said, “I went inside, and within 10 minutes I heard a really loud bang. And I said, ‘Something happened to Jesse.'”

Ramirez said she ran outside to see what happened. “He had a pulse, a weak pulse, but he had a pulse. And he was breathing at the time,” Ramirez said, but then he stopped.

“A neighbor had come across and she said, ‘I’ll breathe for him. You get 911 now.’ And we kept trying and trying, and we kept calling and we kept being told, ‘Please hold for the next operator,'” explained Ramirez.

She said she’s been a medical assistant for more than 20 years and knew every passing minute was crucial.

Now she’s concerned because it took at least 15 minutes before a person got on the line after she called 911.

“You never know, it could be your family next. Are you going to be able to rely on them (911 dispatchers) or not,” Ramirez asked.

Officials with the El Paso County Medical Examiner’s Office said Reade died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the abdomen.

At his vigil, Curl called Reade as a gentle giant. “He gave the biggest bear hugs and the biggest kisses. And he was just good-hearted,” she described.

She said he was a guy who could fix anything, enjoyed drawing and adored his 7-year-old son, Elijah.

Curl said her faith is helping her find peace with her son’s death. “The last day he was alive he told me, ‘Mom, I’m always going to be there to take care of you.’ Well, I guess he’ll be looking down on us from heaven,” Curl said as tears streamed down her face.

But she said doubt still lingers as she thinks of the slight possibility Reade could still be alive had emergency crews been notified earlier.

“I wonder if maybe he would have lived if they hadn’t taken so long.”

Fire officials said 911 dispatchers received two calls from two different numbers that night. One was at 8:55 p.m., the other was at 8:57 p.m.

Officials said both callers hung up and didn’t pick up when dispatchers called back.

A dispatcher was able to speak with one of those callers at 8:59 p.m., and that’s when emergency crews were dispatched to the scene.

The fire officials ABC-7 spoke with said there were 65 calls to 911 regarding several incidents between 8:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. that night.

He said he wasn’t able to check if there had been any callers placed on hold or unable to get through to dispatchers, but is looking into the possibility.

ABC-7 will update that information as soon as it is available.