For 16 minutes before she called 911, triggering a fatal police shooting, Dorothy Gass was on the phone with her son, court records show.
She and Steven Gass exchanged two calls from 2:29 to 2:45 a.m. on Jan. 1. The first call lasted seven minutes. The next call lasted nine minutes. Then, at 2:52 a.m., police records show that Dorothy Gass called 911, telling a dispatcher that Steven Gass’ estranged wife had threatened to kill her children and herself.
Police say that call led to confusion at 147 Meadowview Lane in Rossville, where Steven Gass’ wife, Amy Gass, was staying with her parents. Her father, Mark Parkinson, walked downstairs that morning with a gun, having heard some commotion outside. Outside, seeing a man with a gun, Walker County Deputy John Chandler shot through a window, killing Parkinson.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation charged Dorothy Gass with a count of false report of a crime on Feb. 23, but the criminal inquiry is still active.
The information about the previous phone calls between Dorothy and Steven Gass contradicts what Steven Gass told the Times Free Press two months ago. In a phone interview with a reporter on Jan. 7, he said he woke up that morning to a call from his mother, claiming she had just received a threatening message from Amy Gass.