Chicago, US, February 17, 2016 – Two call takers at the Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communication (OEMC), US, have been suspended for not acting with dispatch to calls received by a man in distress.
The first call taker according to local media, received a three-day suspension, while the second received a one-day suspension, OEMC spokesperson Melissa Stratton said in a statement.
Quintonio LeGrier and Bettie Jones were fatally shot by Officer Robert Rialmo at about 4:30AM on December 26, 2015 at West Erie, when the officer responded to domestic disturbance from LeGrier and his father.
Quintonio LeGrier however called the OEMC office for help.
“LeGrier, a former engineering student who was struggling with mental health issues, was armed with a bat when he was shot. City officials said the shooting of Jones, a mother of five, was an accident”, Chicago Times reported.
According to the newspaper, LeGrier called police three times. In the first two calls, placed at 4:18 a.m. and 4:20 a.m., OEMC call takers failed “to follow protocol,” the OEMC spokesperson said.
“OEMC discovered these two calls — and the issues surrounding them, during our own internal review and immediately started an investigation — and turned them over to the Independent Police Review Authority,” Stratton said.
