Deputy Not Dispatched, 4 Deaths Follow

A decision by a San Jacinto County (Tex.) sheriff’s captain not send deputies in response to several calls about a deranged man turned deadly—the man shot and killed three relatives and then himself. The incident spotlights how an unnamed sheriff’s dispatcher was put in the middle of calls from people who felt they were in danger and who wanted help for Oliver Bills, and a supervisor who told the dispatcher, “Ohh, no! We don’t want to do that!” Bills may have had psychiatric problems last November, and his mother called on a non-emergency line to report him behaving erratically. The sheriff’s dispatcher said he would send a deputy, but first consulted with Capt. Carl Jones about a “welfare check.” But upon hearing that suggestion, Jones emphatically said, “No!” and explained to the dispatcher, “All you going to do is wind up creating an issue…that may hurt us in the long run.” So instead, the dispatcher told subsequent callers to ask a judge after the weekend for a mental health warrant for Bills. A deputy wasn’t dispatched until seven hours later, despite several calls from Bills’ mother and others. The deputy found the four bodies. Jones later told reporters that the four on-duty deputies were too busy to respond to the initial calls, but dispatch logs contradict that claim. Sheriff James Walters said no one has been disciplined, and defended the response. He noted that dispatchers called the family several times to check on their welfare. Read the entire story here, and a follow-up story about the sheriff’s call for more training.