A woman dialed 911 to report that a dog was “attacking” a woman, who was yelling, while neighborhood kids tried to rescue her.
To the dispatcher, the call wasn’t serious enough to merit sending the fire department.
That is the upshot from newly released recordings from the city’s 911 emergency call center, aka the Public Service Answering Point (PSAP).
The recordings are from the June 20 attack on a woman by two American bull mixes in the fenced-in driveway of a Yale psychiatric intern on Ella Grasso Boulevard.
The woman, Jocelyn Winfrey, lost her leg and eyes in the attack, and eventually lost her life.
The recordings, released Wednesday afternoon, do not add to the known details about the attack, which doctors called worse than a chimpanzee’s mauling of a Stamford woman back in 2009.
Rather, the recordings shed light on a controversy that accompanied the attack. The city’s emergency management chief, Rick Fontana, responded after reviewing the recordings that the dispatcher followed protocol, because she did not have information to distinguish a routine bite from a more serious attack.
Some fire officials disagreed. They said it was clear from the call, with barking heard in the background, that this was an ongoing, bloody attack that required assistance from fire crews, which would have arrived before police to help the ambulance crew at the scene.
Click on the audio file at the top of the story to hear the two recordings released Tuesday and judge for yourself.
The Calls
Courtesy Fox 61
Nomad, one of the two attacking dogs.
The first call lasted one minute and 30 minutes. The caller gave the address and reported from the outset that dogs were “attacking” a woman. The conversation continued:
“What’s going on?”
“Humans are being attacked by a dog.”
“OK. There’s people being attacked by a dog?”
“Yes.”
“Where is the dog, outside?”
“No, they’re in the fenced-in yard. I can’t see. But I hear the lady screaming and the dog barking.”
“OK, but did the dog bite her?”
“Yes, the dog is biting her now.”
“Where is the owner of the dog, do you know?”
“No.”
“OK, where is the lady? Is she still in the backyard?”
“She’s, yup, in the yard with the dog.”
“Do you know if she is bleeding anywhere? Is she injured?”
“I can’t … I’m outside the gate. Can’t you have somebody get here as soon as possible?”
“Ma’am, the reason why I’m asking is there is a different priority. I need to know if she is bitten … If she’s bleeding …”
“… the dog is attacking! I’m sure. … I just hear …”
“So you’re not there with the female.”
“They’re over there trying … No I’m across the street. The boys are over there trying to distract the dog.”
“OK. Thank you.”
The woman called back later to urge 911 to send help. More agitated this time, she spoke for 27 seconds: “There’s a woman and a man. I called the police and the ambulance a while ago. People is over here being attacked by dogs. I don’t see anyone out here. By pit bulls. … It seems like it’s taking a long time.” Then she hung up. An ambulance crew arrived at about the same moment. (Read more about the incident here.)
The Aftermath
Jocelyn Winfrey.
Fontana Wednesday cautioned against jumping to judgment based on the recording and based on what we know now about the attack. He said he has listened to the recording ten times, and concluded the dispatcher acted according to her training.
“I’ve been doing this for 35 years. I will tell you that when we look at all these incidents, we always try to point a finger: Who was wrong here? Who made a mistake? But when you really look at it, when you listen to it, that disapatcher only heard it that one time, looked at the dispatch protocol, she followed the appropriate protocol.”
Fontana said the caller had no firsthand information. Protocol requires sending a fire crew if an animal-bite victim “is bleeding from a critical body part. They would be head, neck, face.” Jocelyn Winfrey was indeed bleeding in all those places; witnesses said buckets of blood were all over the place, and her legs had only bone, no skin. But the caller, Fontana noted, didn’t mention any of that.
That said, the city has revised its protocol to dispatch a fire crew any time an animal attack is in progress.
Meanwhile, the city animal shelter staff plans to euthanize the two dogs involved in the attack on July 6. They’re currently being quarantined at the shelter to make sure they don’t have rabies.
Aliyya Swaby contributed to this story.
This whole story is so tragic and sad and disturbing. Much more than any crime story this makes me nervous about walking around with my kids -- there are so many dangerous-looking dogs in New Haven and who knows which ones really are dangerous or could snap at any moment.
I also do not fully understand why a NHFD response could have or would have helped here -- can someone explain what training or response they would have had that may have helped the victim here?
Also, I'm hesitant to contribute to any finger pointing here, since I imagine there a lot of non-urgent 911 calls and it must be very hard to distinguish and prioritize. With that said, it does seem that the operator was getting defensive and wasting valuable time doing so. The caller used the word "attack/attacking" several times which does escalate this beyond a single dog bite. And the caller had already explained she was outside the gate; so when the operator says, "so you're not there" it sounds like "So you don't really know what you're talking about."
"I can't … I'm outside the gate. Can't you have somebody get here as soon as possible?"
"Ma'am, the reason why I'm asking is there is a different priority. I need to know if she is bitten … If she's bleeding …"
"… the dog is attacking! I'm sure. … I just hear …"
"So you're not there with the female."
Am I getting this wrong or does the operator sound defensive rather than just activating help ASAP. As I posted in a different story, I had my own absurd 911 dispatch interaction earlier this spring. After I observed a minor theft on West Rock Ave, I called 911 and spent a few minutes arguing with a dispatcher who was adamant that I must be in a different town because he assured me there was no street named West Rock Ave in the city of New Haven. This went on and on and I thought at the time what would happen if I had an actual emergency and had to argue with the 911 dispatcher?!