P.I. Pulse: Police Take Too Long, Woman is Killed

What are you supposed to do if you or a loved one suffers due to the negligence of the police? A recent story out of Denver is shedding light on this very issue. In a tragic and possibly avoidable turn of events, a mother of three was recently gunned down by her husband. Many people are now saying that she could have been saved had the police arrived in a timely fashion. You see, the woman was actually on the phone with law enforcement at the time of her murder – and she had been on the phone with police for a whole 13 minutes!

According to an article from CNN, the woman had frantically called police when her husband began to hallucinate. Things quickly escalated when he retrieved his gun and began to ask her to shoot him. Then, nearly a quarter of an hour into the call, police officers heard what sounded like a gunshot. After that noise, the woman spoke no more. When police eventually got to the house, they found the woman dead with a bullet wound to the head.

Could the woman’s death have been avoided? Perhaps. Of course the police didn’t kill the woman, but they could have intervened early enough to stop the individual who ended up killing her. 13 minutes is a very long response time; taxpayers should have an expectation that should they find themselves in a dangerous life-and-death situation, the police will arrive quickly with assistance.

Some legal theorists have countered the notion that the police are liable by arguing that the police field many 911 calls, and they have to determine which are the most time-sensitive. That’s absolutely true, but what is more time-sensitive than a woman calling the police because her hallucinating husband is wielding a gun? Shouldn’t this call have taken priority over, say, a call placed by someone whose neighbor’s party was too loud – or even someone whose car had been broken into?

Just last year, the Denver Post reported that police response times to situations needing immediate attention, like the one in this case, had increased from 5.7 minutes the year before to 7.2 minutes in 2013. But the event that just took place this month was clearly one requiring immediate police intervention – and 13 minutes into the phone call placed by the eventual victim, police still weren’t there.

If you or a loved one has incurred injuries due to the negligence of another, you have the legal right to demand compensation from the responsible party. If your local police department could have prevented you from incurring an injury, and they did not act as efficiently as they are reasonably expected to, you may have a legitimate case against said department.

To schedule a free consultation, please contact our personal injury lawyers at the Law Offices of Aronberg & Aronberg by calling 561-266-9191 or emailing us at daronberg@build.simple.biz.

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