Monday, February 22, 2016

Were The 911 Operator(s) Negligent in Kalamazoo?

According to this article, Mackenzie Waite reportedly posted on her Facebook page about a ride she and her husband took in an Uber cab with a driver named Jason (who reportedly it the description of Jason Dalton) at the wheel. Jason Dalton is the suspected shooter in the drive by shootings resulting in at least 6 deaths and others being injured yesterday in Kalamazoo. According to the article, she also posted this on her Facebook page: "911 was called but surprisingly they didn't seem all that concerned...". In her Facebook post, she reportedly said that: Dalton sideswiped a car while she and her husband were in the cab with him driving and that he sped away at 80 mph and was swerving in and out of oncoming traffic. 

If 911 was actually called and given all of that information, what was the 911 operator thinking if that info was not passed onto police. If it was given to the police, what were they thinking if they did not make an all out effort to find such a driver who was reportedly endangering the lives of the public by way of his reckless driving. Mind you, her Facebook post reportedly was made about a half hour before the shootings commenced. Had Dalton be puled over by the police before that half hour had elapsed, 6 lives may well have been saved and others who were injured would still be in good health.

I don't know what happened after Miss Waite made that call to 911, that she claims she made, but there apparently is more to it. Fox news also reports that another woman claimed to have called 911 about such an incident involving her. "Kacey Black said she called 911 to report the driver, but said "I felt like they didn't believe me. They just kind of laughed at me."(source). Now, they don't say if Miss Black made that call separate from Miss Waite or if she made the call on behalf of Miss Waite. In fact, the other article mentioned above only quoted Miss Waite's Facebook post as saying 911 was called, not that she called 911 herself. If however both women called 911 independently of one another, about two separate incidents involving an Uber driver, and if both of those calls came before the shooting started, then the city of Kalamazoo is going to have a lot to answer about how 911 and or the police handled those reports to 911. If it was indeed two separate calls, with both callers indicating that the 911operator did not seem to take the call seriously, it would seem to me that the 911 operator(s) will at the very least have a lot on their consciences for years to come and that the city needs to retrain its 911 operators and revamp how they handle such calls. Then again, especially if there were two calls received by the same 911 operator, and the operator did not take the calls seriously, maybe they need to fire that person and seriously think of charging him or her with some sort of negligence, after all 6 people died and others were wounded. Of course, all that is only alleged and thus uncertain right now but an investigation needs to swiftly initiated to get to the bottom of it and prevent it from happening again if that is truly what took place.

All the best,
Glenn B
 

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