Hua Li was purchasing a lottery ticket at a RaceWay convenience store in Houston, Texas, on March 12 when a man holding a gun burst through the front door and attempted to force his way behind the bulletproof security panel in front of the counter.
Li fled from the store, hearing gunshots behind him as he ran. Then he did what anyone would in the situation, what you’re supposed to do in the situation: He threw his car door open, pulled out his phone and dialed 911.
“They just said, ‘This is 911. How can I help you?'” Li told KPRC. “I was trying to finish my sentence, and we got disconnected.”
He was forced to call again, and the police finally arrived on the scene. But, by then, the store’s manager was dead.
This infuriating story would likely sound familiar to Buster Pendley and Sharon Stephens, a married couple also living in Houston.
Earlier in March, a blood clot moved to Stephens’s lungs, causing her to lose consciousness. Her panicked husband attempted to perform CPR on her while calling 911.
“She was gasping, and I could feel her heart beating out of her chest, but I couldn’t get a pulse,” Pendley told KPRC.
“The 911 operator answered the phone, and she said, ‘This is Crenshanda, may I help you?’
“[I said,] ‘Wife’s passed out I need an ambulance,'” Pendley told the station. “She said, ‘OK,’ and she hangs up on me.”
At the time, he didn’t tell his wife. Instead, he called 911 again, was put through and managed to get an ambulance in time.
Stephens may have escaped unscathed, but when she learned what happened, she grew livid.
“I was furious he didn’t tell me what happened, because I would have, I mean I would have gotten from my hospital bed and gone to 911 and find out who did that to me,” she said.
That person, who identified herself as Crenshanda, was 43-year-old Crenshanda Williams, a former 911 operator who on Tuesday was charged with two misdemeanor counts of interference with an emergency telephone call.
According to police, Williams did a whole lot more than hang up in these two instances, though. They claim that between October 2015 and March 2016, she had thousands of “short calls,” which lasted for 20 seconds or less, much like the two above.
In one, a security guard called to report a pair of drivers drag racing on the highway.
“This is Officer Molten. I’m driving on 45 South right now and I am at . . .'” the call began, but she immediately hung up, KIAH reported. Before she did, though, the recording included Williams responding, “Ain’t nobody got time for this. For real.”
Williams, who no longer works with the Houston Emergency Center where she was employed since 2014, allegedly told police that she would hang up on calls because she “did not want to talk to anyone at that time.”
She is due in court next week, NBC reported. It’s unclear if she has entered a plea or if she’s retained a lawyer. The charges carry a potential sentence of one year in jail.
Featured Image: Houston Police Handout
(c) 2016, The Washington Post ยท Travis M. Andrews
