City Responds to Family’s Lawsuit Over 911 Call

The city of Murphy (Tex.) has released the logging tape of a 911 call involving the 2007 death of a toddler who was strangled when he got caught in a backyard soccer net. The family of Matthew Cantrell has sued the city, saying that a Murphy dispatcher failed to give any medical instructions, and that when Murphy police arrived on-scene, they prevented EMS personnel from treating their 21 month-old son. The city has said dispatcher Stephen Williamson and on-scene personnel did everything possible to save the child. Those actions included conferencing in the East Texas Medical Center to the 911 call so that agency could provide pre-arrival medical instructions to the caller. During the 5-minute logging tape just released, Ave Cantrell is hysterical nearly the entire time Williamson sends police and EMS units to the house, and then talks with the EMS dispatcher. The city also released testimony from those who responded to the scene, allegedly showing that they properly examined the child, but that he was beyond any treatment. Download (pdf) the family’s original lawsuit here, and download (pdf, 7 Mb) the city’s recent court filing to dismiss the lawsuit here (See p. 86 for Williamson’s statement.). Also, listen to the 911 call here.