Sheriff unhappy with dispatcher in Powell case
By The Associated Press
This article was published February 8, 2012 at 10:06 a.m.
PHOTO BY AP
A Pierce County fire investigator examines debris, Monday, Feb. 6, 2012, at the home where Josh Powell and his two sons were killed Sunday, in Graham, Wash.. Powell's wife Susan went mysteriously missing from their West Valley City, Utah, home in December 2009. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
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PUYALLUP, Wash. — Washington state authorities say they’re not happy with the performance of a 911 dispatcher during last weekend’s murder-suicide involving the husband of a missing Utah woman.
Pierce County Sheriff’s Detective Ed Troyer tells The Associated Press that when a social worker called to report that Josh Powell had taken his two young sons into his home during what was supposed to be a supervised visit, the dispatcher left her with the impression that no help was immediately on the way.
Troyer says that was bad etiquette, but he does not believe it resulted in any unnecessary delays.
The social worker seemed to try repeatedly to relay the gravity of what was going on to dispatchers. Josh Powell was scheduled for a supervised visit with his sons Sunday. Authorities said he locked the door, used a hatchet on his kids, and lit the house on fire, killing all inside.
In the first minutes of the 911 call, the woman laid out the situation briefly, then asked, “What should I do? .... Nothing like this has ever happened before at these visitations. ... I could hear one of the kids crying, and he still wouldn’t let me in.”
The dispatcher at one point asked the social worker what address she was at. The social worker didn’t know and needed to look for it. It took her about 1 1/2 minutes to find it in her car. At one point she asks, “You can’t find me by GPS?” While she’s still looking for the address she says, “But I think I need help right away.”
The woman also explained that she smelled gasoline, saying four minutes into the call that the boys have been locked in the home for 10 minutes.
After six minutes on the call, a dispatcher says: “We’ll have somebody look for you there.”
“OK, how long will it be?” the woman asks.
“I don’t know ma’am. We have to respond to emergency life threatening situations first. The first available deputy “
The woman responded: “This could be life-threatening ... I’m afraid for their lives.”
After the home broke out in flames, the woman screamed in a separate call: “He exploded the house!”
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Felina says... February 8, 2012 at 1:02 p.m.
How horrific that as the children were being attacked, the social worker had to endure 7 minutes of meaningless conversation with the 911 dispatcher, who asked such important questions like the color of the social workers vehicle. The police maintain that the dispatcher followed procedures by the book. Time to throw the book out and start using some brain capacity.
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