*****Not for the Faint of Heart******
The article I want to share is the first stabbing I ever took as a 911 dispatcher. This call scared me and gave me an adrenaline rush like no other. Not the good kind.
Family disturbances and domestic violence calls are some of the most dangerous calls we respond to.
My theory is that so much emotion is wrapped within the family that it boils over in seconds. Families or couples that may have been bottling up a simple problem can potentially turn into a violent tragedy.
So here is the call…
This call came in around 23:00 (11 pm). I remember it was Spring, and it started snowing that night. Overall it wasn’t busy. That day was cold, and then it became even slower when it began to snow.
The following 911 call I picked up would change the course of that night…
As I answered the call, I got an open line with a girl hysterically screaming. I tried asking for the address numerous times but got nothing. I knew something awful was happening but couldn’t do anything about it for those few seconds.
I turned to my coworker beside me and said, “I need help getting this address.”
I continued trying to get the lady's attention as she did that.
Finally, the lady began screaming the address over and over again. I could barely understand it. The last time she screamed it, I finally got it. Luckily the phone location and the numbers she gave me matched.
I desperately tried to get her to calm down enough to tell me what happened.
She first said, “My boyfriend stabbed my uncle!”
My heart stopped. This was my first time taking a stabbing call. I was starting to freeze. In this field, you can not freeze, and you cannot make a mistake.
I remember turning around, and the thought crossed my mind: maybe someone else could pick up this call. That’s how scared I was.
But I told myself, you got this; trust yourself, get it done.
The next question I asked was, “Where is your boyfriend? Where did he go? What does he look like?”
She gave me the description and told me what direction her boyfriend had left. I immediately put that in the call notes so the police could see it.
Mind you; I was still working through my shock of the call. I remembered that I still needed to give medical directions to the stabbed person.
I asked the caller, “Alright, where is your uncle? Where is he stabbed at?"
She said, “He was stabbed in the neck.”
I said, “Okay, we must start applying pressure to the wound now.”
This is where the turn of events happened…
She told me, “He’s not here anymore. He left. I don’t know where he went.”
I said, “What? I have the paramedics and the fire department heading toward your address.”
At that point, she said, "Police are here."
The call disconnected.
Here comes the next turn of events…
The responding fire department called on the radio, “Send the police over here now! We have a male stabbed in the neck in front of the firehouse doors.”
I turned around to the fire dispatcher, and my jaw dropped. I thought, is that my victim? It has to be… Right?
And indeed it was.
So here is what I think happened. The victim/uncle in the stabbing took off, trying to make his way to the hospital in his own vehicle. He realized he wouldn’t make it and instead turned to the nearest fire station, which was the station that was responding anyway. Instead found the victim lying outside their firehouse in a pool of blood as they were getting ready to respond.
At that point, the ambulance rushed to the firehouse, as did a couple of police officers already at the house.
Meanwhile, the ambulance rushed over to the firehouse, picked up the victim, and rushed him to the hospital. He was in serious critical condition.
There were two crime scenes, and more officers were needed to secure both.
Back at the house, the caller's boyfriend had taken off, and officers didn’t have a direction of travel. However, one officer did point out it was snowing and saw footprints leading toward a school.
Granted, it could have been anyone’s footprints, but given the time of night, it was doubtful it would be anyone else.
As they followed the footprints, officers came across the knife used to stab the uncle. They described it as a machete. Not long after, they found the caller’s boyfriend hiding behind the school. The officers took him into custody without incident.
To this day, I do not know if the uncle survived, and I am unsure what happened with the caller’s boyfriend. I’m assuming he is in jail.
Again, this was the first stabbing call that I took. It shook me to the core. Everything about it was challenging. I couldn’t get the address immediately, the boyfriend fled, and the victim took off. It was chaos and extremely hard to control. What made this even more challenging was I couldn’t make a mistake, and I knew that in the back of my mind during the entire call.
I know we are all humans, and humans make mistakes, but when you have people’s lives in your hands, those mistakes can cost someone their life.
Thank you for letting me share this one! I hope you enjoyed it!
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More articles to come!
Nat 🤍
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