When law enforcement officers fail to do their job, people sometimes die. It appears this unfortunately was the case in the May 14 supermarket massacre in Buffalo, New York.
A gunman wearing military fatigues, body armor and a tactical helmet killed 10 people and wounded three others at a Tops grocery store.
One woman, an assistant manager at the supermarket, attempted to call 911 for help. During the call, the Erie County 911 operator yelled at and eventually hung up on the woman while the shooting was taking place.
Sadly, on Thursday, this story got even worse.
As it turns out, roughly one week later, a survivor of the Buffalo massacre fell victim to another improperly handled 911 call.
According to the WIVB-TV, the call was made during a birthday party for the Tops survivor when a woman went into cardiac arrest.
The report didn’t indicate how the call was improperly handled, but it said the 911 operator had been fired.
This was a different call taker from the one who dropped the ball during the mass shooting itself.
That caller was fired as well after being placed on administrative leave.
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April Baskin, chairwoman of the Erie County Legislature, said it was “obvious” that the Tops call “was not handled in a professional way,” according to WIVB.
“We’re going to ask for further investigations into the full department because this happened more than once in the matter of two weeks on Buffalo’s East Side,” Baskin added, referring to the second call from the birthday party.
The report said she was working with Legislator Howard Johnson to get answers.
“I have asked and Legislator Johnson have asked for an investigation not just into that particular call taker and the ongoings of that call, but the entire department and identifying how many disconnections are happening,” Baskin said.
If law enforcement officials aren’t properly hired and trained, instances such as this are likely to continue.
If the call had been handled the right way, would lives have been saved at the Tops supermarket? It’s impossible to know.
However, the next time there’s such an incident, it might. The next time, a properly handled 911 call might lead to many lives being saved.
Sadly, since Democratic politicians radically defunded police departments across the country amid the Black Lives Matter movement, there are no assurances of how prepared law enforcement officials will be in the face of such a crisis.
