A Colorado 911 dispatcher has resigned after a woman was murdered during the dispatcher's 12-minute phone call with the victim, KUSA-TV reported.
The person who took the call, whose name was not released, resigned Friday after a Denver investigation into the April 15 death of Kristine Kirk, who was allegedly shot to death by her husband while she was on the phone with the dispatcher.
"After considering the request, the dismissal letter has been withdrawn and her resignation accepted," the city of Denver said, KUSA-TV reported.
Kirk, 44, called 911 the day she was killed and said her husband was hallucinating after mixing pain medication with marijuana he bought hours earlier. An investigation revealed that the dispatcher entered the caller's information into the computer and sent the notes to the police officers' laptops, the Detroit Free Press reported.
But the dispatcher failed to provide the officers with verbal updates on the same information. The call taker provided an initial verbal update, but did not issue the next one for 13 minutes.
"At the time, it was prioritized appropriately as a Class 1 priority, but no information was provided, verbally to the officers, to update that situation," Denver Police Department Commander Matt Murray said according to the Detroit Free Press. "Officers were not given, verbally, information as they were responding to the scene. It's not possible or safe for officers to be driving to a crime and reading a screen."
If the dispatcher provided the verbal update, the officers would have determined Kirk's situation called for an emergency response, according to the investigation. Since there were no updates the police categorized the response time in accordance with a response to a regular domestic-violence call, KUSA-TV reported.
The investigation determined that the police responded appropriately according to the information they were given. The call taker was suspended with pay the day after the incident, but quit Friday before being fired.
Kirk's husband, Richard Kirk, is scheduled to appear in Denver District Court on Aug. 22.
