Deputy Called Neighbor To Investigate 911 Call

In the rural areas of northern California, sheriff’s deputies can be hundreds of miles and hours of driving away from crime victims. So in March 2011 when the Trinity County sheriff’s comm center received a 911 call from a woman whispering, “Help,” a lawsuit claims a deputy telephoned neighbors to investigate while he was enroute. Those neighbors were met by the crazed man who had just killed the two residents of the house, and were themselves slashed by the knife-wielding man. The husband and wife survived, and have will file a lawsuit against the sheriff’s department, saying the deputy never explained the potential danger to them, and should never have asked them to go to the victims’ house. Sheriff’s officials say the deputy who called Jim and Norma Gund never asked them to respond, but only if they could see anything from their house. Since the deputy called the couple from a cellular phone, there is no logging tape of the call. After attacking the Gunds, the murder suspect fled, but was spotted by sheriff’s deputies and pursued. His car crashed into a tree and the suspect was killed. The incident raises questions of rural area response times, inter-agency coordination, radio communications and policies for recording communications. Download (pdf) the Gunds’ claim against the county before the lawsuit filing, and read more details here.

The Gunds and the victims, Kristine Constantino and Christopher Richardson, lived near a small airstrip in Trinity County, nestled into crook of the Trinity National Forest. It’s at least an hour and 15 minutes from a major town and highway.

According to computer-aided dispatch (CAD) time logs, Constantino dialed 911 at about 3:28 p.m. using a cellular phone. The call was fielded by a CHP dispatcher at the Humboldt Communications Center, about 60 air miles northwest. The dispatcher transferred the call to the Trinity County sheriff’s comm center in Weaverville, about 45 air miles northeast, but over 105 miles and 2½ hours away by road. The CHP dispatcher pondered whether they should call the victim back, logging tapes show. “I have her callback number,” the CHP dispatcher told the sheriff’s dispatcher, “but  would be leery of calling it back because it sounds like she’s trying to hide the fact that she’s calling from somebody.”

Because of the lengthy response time, a sheriff’s corporal telephoned the Gunds, who he knew lived nearby, and who he believed could see the victims’ house from their own house.

The sheriff’s and Gunds’ account differ on what was said during the call. However, both agree the Gunds were savagely attacked when they arrived at the victims’ house. Other nearby neighbors dialed 911 for help at 4:48 p.m., and the first deputy arrived at 5:43 p.m., about two hours and 15 after Constantino’s 911 call.

The map below shows how the victim’s lived in a “notch” of the Trinity National Forest, with the CHP comm center in Arcata (upper-left) and the Trinity County sheriff’s comm center in Weaverville (upper-right). There are few roads in the area, making response times very long.