Audio clip
Call that Murrary county dispatch made to the Whitfield county 911 center to report the lookout for David Hartline.
Audio clip
Complaint Mindy Bullard made that was routed to Murrary County dispatch.
Audio clip
WARNING: This 911 call contains graphic language and violence
Audio clip
WARNING: This 911 call contains graphic violence.
CHATSWORTH, Ga. — Andrea Petty is haunted by the 911 call she answered nine days ago and wonders if she could have done anything differently.
Petty, a 15-year dispatcher, was working at the Murrary County 911 Center on Aug. 26 when she got a call from Mindy Bullard in Dawnville, Ga., at 4:35 p.m.
“I need the police at my house right now,” Bullard cried into the phone.
“I probably get six calls like hers a day,” Petty, 36, said more than a week later — calls about boyfriends, girlfriends, wives and husbands.
She couldn’t do anything about Bullard’s call, which came from Rainbow Drive in Whitfield County. She forwarded Bullard’s message about a drunk man disturbing her daughter’s birthday party to Whitfield 911 and asked authorities to be on the lookout for his truck.
But she didn’t pass on the request for police, recordings of the call show.
Four hours later, Bullard’s ex-boyfriend, David Hartline, showed up at her home on Rainbow Drive armed. He fatally shot Bullard’s father and ex-husband before dying in a crossfire.
-
Staff Photo by Angela Lewis/Chattanooga Times Free Press Sep3, 2010 Andrea Patty works in the 911 Center in Chatsworth, Ga. Friday afternoon. She answered the first 911 phone call from Mindy Bullard hours before Bullard's ex-boyfriend David Hartline showed up at her home with a gun.
“I wish that they [Whitfield authorities] had seen him and been able to stop him. I gave the information I had,” Petty said through tears on Friday.
The families of Bullard’s father, Edward Manz III, 61, and ex-husband, Kenneth Simonson, 41, blame emergency workers and police for their loved ones’ deaths.
“That could have all been prevented if they would have come the first time,” said Manz’s brother, Michael, choking back tears.
Whitfield County officials say they would have sent a patrol car if they had been warned that Bullard had asked for police.
“I do wish we had gotten that information,” said Jeff Ownby, Whitfield County 911 director. “If the call had come to our 911 center, we would have sent an officer.”
He said complaints had been made from the Bullard house in Dawnville several times before.
Murrary County 911 director Peggy Vick said Petty followed proper policies and gave all the information dispatchers needed to send police to the house.
It wasn’t Petty’s fault that a deputy wasn’t dispatched to check on the family, Vick said.
At the 911 Center on Friday, Petty looked at her monitors and told the sheriff’s office through her earpiece that a woman was receiving threatening text messages from her estranged husband.
“It kind of makes you think,” she said. “Is the next one going to be similar?”
Petty said she has talked to mothers screaming as they found their babies dead from SIDS and listened as a former teacher tried futilely to save her husband from a heart attack.
Each call affects her differently, she said.
“A lot of us go home thinking, ‘How could I have helped them?’” she said. “You just wish you could actually reach out and help them.”
Continue reading by following this link to a related story:
Joy Lukachick covers crime in North Georgia for the Chattanooga Times Free Press. She started working at the paper in July 2009 as an intern. Raised near the Bayou, Joy’s hometown is along the outskirts of Baton Rouge, La. She has a bachelor’s degree in mass communication from Louisiana State University. While at LSU, Joy was a staff writer for the Daily Reveille. When Joy isn't chasing down stories, she is a full-time supporter of ...
Andrea Petty should go ahead and find some other line of work if she does not take calls seriously. The family should go ahead and find a lawyer to sue 911 for malpractice or negligence, and maybe a few other civil torts. Better yet, since Petty stated she wishes that she can reach out and help literally, then maybe the sheriffs department should deputized her, so she can do just that.
Tax_Payer-Until you have been on the receiving end of a call like this you have no idea what you're talking about. She followed the exact procedures she was supposed to. If anybody is at fault, it was the drunk ex that destroyed a family. If the victims' family needs to sue for closure then they need to pursue Whitfield Co for not following up on the the information that Ms. Petty actually gave them. It would be common sense, to me at least, that if someone was drunk and was disturbing a child's birthday party then an officer would at least need to take a report so that harassment charges could be filed. Or how about suing the cell phone company? They are partially responsible as well. I can't stand calling 911 on a cell because I never seem to get the correct police dept. I can be standing in the middle of LaFayette, GA and still get the Walker Co. 911. In this day in age, with the advancements in technology, I can find my kids by their GPS-embedded cell phones but my cell phone company can't figure out where I am to get me the correct 911 center? It makes no sense at all. I feel for Ms. Petty wholeheartedly. After a situation like this I would be looking for a less stressful job. With 15 years under her belt she has served the citizens well and deserves something easier.
Andrea Patty/Petty made an error that cost people their lives. The caller immediately stated, "I need the police at my house..." Ms. Patty/Petty DID NOT send a law-enforcement unit nor did she advise Whitfield-911 that the caller had requested a police officer at her house. I'm saddened and sorry for the Murry-911 dispatcher, but the error rests on her shoulders.
This is such a sad story to read, and horrific to hear the 911 calls. It made me nauseated. My condolence to the families of the victims. May God bless the children and the young lady that called for help.
As a 911 dispatcher for over 20 years the only thing I keep asking myself is why did petty not transfer this call to Whitfield dispatch instead of taking all of the information and then giving it to Whitfield all second hand. If she had transfered this call directly to Whitfield dispatch then Whitfield could have dealt with there call without getting information second hand. In this story it says that Whitfield says if they knew the complaintant had asked for police they would have sent a patrol car. Please give me a break the complaintant called 4 hours prior to the subject coming back, You know as well as I do that your ofc would not have stayed on the scene for 4 hours. The subject would have come back reguardless. Yes the complaintant did say in the begning of the call she wanted police there ,again if murray county had transfered the call directly to whitfield co the complaintant could have told Whitfield directly. The only thing this dispatcher did wrong was that she did not relay that the complaintant wanted police at the house. The dispatcher did tell the complaintant she was going to do a bolo.If the complaintant wanted the polce at her door and not just them looking for the subject why did she not call back in the four hours and ask where the ofc was? It is very scary that the director of the 911 center stated that what this dispatcher did was per there protocals.If for some reason murray county you are unable to transfer calls I suggest that you figure it out because there is no excuse for not being able to in this day and age. On the tape you can hear the Murray county dispatcher tell the Whitfield county dispatcher that they receive there calls all the time. If Murray county does not change this policy and continues to have there dispatchers take the information and give it to the responding agency second hand you will see this happen again.
Or login with:
New Account