Called 911, but no one came in time


KimberPB

New member
Wow! So not only did someone not get there for 48 mins but they still have not been able to catch the scum bag that did this. What a shame a young life was taken for what appears to be no reason. She was 21 and could have legally owned a gun. To bad she didn't. Stay safe out there guys and practice, practice, practice!!!

Slain student called 911, but no one came in time - CNN.com

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Brittany Zimmerman, a 21-year-old college student who wanted to be a doctor, called 911 as she was being attacked by a stranger, police say.

But the police did not come for 48 minutes. By that time, Zimmerman was dead. Her fiance found her body.

Although the dispatcher claimed later to have heard nothing, the 911 tape captured screams, gasps and what sounds like a struggle, according to the court documents.

Spring was in the air when college student Zimmerman returned April 2 from classes at the University of Wisconsin to the off-campus apartment she shared with her fiance, Jordan Gonnering.

He was out when she arrived home. He discovered her body when he returned.

Zimmerman had been stabbed multiple times in her chest, near her heart. She'd also been beaten and strangled, according to warrants released recently. Watch an update on the case »

Zimmerman managed to call 911 at 12:20 p.m. The call was taken by the Dane County 911 center and an internal investigation revealed the dispatcher did not hear any sounds that would signal an emergency.

Because of that, police were not sent to the apartment until 48 minutes after Zimmerman made the call. Her fiance was already there.

Dane County has taken some harsh criticism from the public regarding the delay, and tough questions have been raised about whether a prompt response might have saved Zimmerman's life.

Police are still looking for her killer.

"We are working diligently on this case, have generated significant leads, and are making progress," said Joel De Spain of the Madison Police Department.

The police said they believe Zimmerman was attacked by a stranger. Her apartment door showed signs of forced entry.

After interviews with Zimmerman's family, friends and acquaintances, investigators determined there was no personal motive for the attack.

"In fact, we have not been able to determine any motive yet in this case," De Spain said. He emphasized that police have no reason to believe Zimmerman was the victim of a serial killer.

During the investigation, police have tracked leads pointing to vagrants in Zimmerman's off-campus neighborhood. The vagrants often would knock on doors and beg for money.

"We are still investigating this avenue, but at this time we have not been able to develop any specific suspects," De Spain said.

Zimmerman's family and friends describe her as a loving, warm young woman, who had much to look forward to. She was engaged to the love of her life and had dreams of earning a medical degree, they said. She was idealistic, and her goal was to help people, not to earn a large salary, they said.

Other details in the released warrants reveal that Zimmerman was murdered in her bedroom, that her cell phone was found in "parts," and that her bloody slippers and bloody computer paper were recovered.

The murder weapon is described as a knife, two to five inches long. Police are not saying whether they have recovered it.

DNA was collected from Zimmerman's body, as well as hair, blood samples, footprints and fingerprints. So far, no match has been made to a suspect.

Zimmerman's family is offering a $14,000 reward, and Crime Stoppers is offering $1,000 for tips leading to the arrest and/or conviction of anyone responsible for Zimmerman's death. Please call the tip line at 608-266-6014.
 

This is so tragic........such a waste.
I hit a pre-set for 911 on my phone once and realized in a split second what I had done and hung up.
I mean in about 3 seconds the phone rang and it was the 911 operator wanting to know if I was ok and what had happened. I explained and she said please be more careful. I cant imagine a reason for the police not arriving for 48 minutes.
 
Tragic. Very tragic. As I have said before a similar incident happened in Dallas back some time in the 90's. Fourty five min. after a woman called 911 to report someone trying to break in her house the police arrived to find her dead. As many others have said before you are the only one that can protect you 24 hours a day.
 
Right up through the court system, all the way to SOCUS, it has been repeatedly ruled that public safety departments have NO obligation to provide protection/services to individual citizens. Basically, these rulings say you "may" get assistance, but the truth is that you are pretty much on your own when it comes to your personal safety. For me that puts into very stark focus those who would disarm law-abiding citizens. Simply put, they are my enemies.
 
Regardless of the outcome, regardless of whether the victim had a gun of her own, and regardless of what the Supreme Court says about police responsibility toward individual citizens, a 48-minute response time by police officers is simply unacceptable.
 
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Regardless of the outcome, regardless of whether the victime had a gun of her own, and regardless of what the Supreme Court says about police responsibility toward individual citizens, a 48-minute response time by police officers is simply unacceptable.

Absolutely!

But really, in any situation, *shit happens* as they say. Being armed gives a double layer of protection from the Murph Monster as it takes two SH. I mean, even if she was armed, she could have set the gun down, or dropped it, or whatever.

Having multiple layers only improves the odds, it never makes it error free.
 
The police in Los Angeles pretty much agree that they cannot protect and serve as their motto suggests. It's up to us, folks, to protect and serve ourselves!
 
Absolutely!

But really, in any situation, *shit happens* as they say. Being armed gives a double layer of protection from the Murph Monster as it takes two SH. I mean, even if she was armed, she could have set the gun down, or dropped it, or whatever.

Having multiple layers only improves the odds, it never makes it error free.

Whoa, and would you say that if she had been a he? I think not. Properly trained, no one sets their gun down or drops it, male or female. Sorry, try again!
 
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When seconds count, the police are only...almost an hour away!

Years ago I had a minor accident in Clay County (south of Jacksonville). This was before cell phones had the features that they do today, and I didn't have the non-emergency number for Clay Sheriff's Dept, so I called 911. I was on hold for a few minutes before an operator picked up. She asked my emergency, then put me on hold again. I waited for something like 15 minutes. Finally she came on and said she would have an officer call me back. Now this wasn't a super high-priority issue, but clearly they were vastly overburdened. If I had shot someone in self-defense, the body would be cold by the time they picked up the phone!

We waited for about half an hour, and it was an extremely cold night. My friend and I were sitting in my car burning gas to keep the heater on, and the other people were, too. Finally we all just said forget it...it was a commercial truck anyway, and I talked to the owner of the company who swore by all that was holy and right that he would pay for the damage. He did, and my car was eventually fixed.

The next day, I got a call from the Sheriff's Department. :rolleyes:
 
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Whoa, and would you say that if she had been a he? I think not. Properly trained, no one sets their gun down or drops it, male or female. Sorry, try again!

No implication on the 'she' (it was a she in the article.) My point was that EVERYONE makes mistakes, males, females and everything in between. Two layers of protection is better than one.
 
Whoa, and would you say that if she had been a he? I think not. Properly trained, no one sets their gun down or drops it, male or female. Sorry, try again!

Would it have made you feel better if had had said "he," or been gender neutral? The fact is, the victim was a woman, and that's why he she "she.' I'm certain he didn't intend to be sexist.
 
The police in Los Angeles pretty much agree that they cannot protect and serve as their motto suggests. It's up to us, folks, to protect and serve ourselves!

And this will only get worse. With the economy the way it is, governments are scaling back so they don't go bust too. That means less vehicle patrols, less OT for officers, less visibility, less perceived safety. And now they (Obama and friends) want to take way our personal protection too!?!?! WTF!?!?!?!?
 
And this happened WHERE?

Considering that Wisconsin has made CC illegal, I wonder what the response time would have been for someone calling in to say that they might have seen some "joe blow" at McDonalds with a gun in his pocket. One of you guys (I forgot who) has as a sig line which is my new best argument when talking with my local gun snatching proponents: When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.

Now we know exactly how many minutes we are talking. :sad: :cray:
 
Okay, granted that maybe you didn't mean to be sexist. But, how many males would have set the gun down? I think, none. When I read your post it reminded me of the posts I've read that said that women would have the guns taken from their hands so they shouldn't have pistols for self-defense. I just think that with the proper training neither men nor women would have the firearms taken from them, and neither would set the gun down in the midst of self-defense. That is not the thing to do, that's obvious to me, and hopefully to you, and to all who want to be defensive.
 
Okay, granted that maybe you didn't mean to be sexist. But, how many males would have set the gun down? I think, none. When I read your post it reminded me of the posts I've read that said that women would have the guns taken from their hands so they shouldn't have pistols for self-defense. I just think that with the proper training neither men nor women would have the firearms taken from them, and neither would set the gun down in the midst of self-defense. That is not the thing to do, that's obvious to me, and hopefully to you, and to all who want to be defensive.


I've seen many men and women put their firearms down in "defensive" sitations. I do a lot of firearms training with military, civilians, and law enforment. You would be amazed to hear what I've seen. Very disturbing in some situations. Gun grabs are always the scariest.

Don't get too hung up on what others say about women and guns. I took it as the article was written about a woman, hence the "she" reference. Rest assured that both men AND women do things that they shouldn't be doing in a "defensive" situation.



gf
 
You hear sometimes of someone having their gun taken away and used on them. That tells me two things. First they let the perp get to close and second they were not mentally prepared to pull the trigger.
 
Okay, granted that maybe you didn't mean to be sexist. But, how many males would have set the gun down? I think, none. When I read your post it reminded me of the posts I've read that said that women would have the guns taken from their hands so they shouldn't have pistols for self-defense. I just think that with the proper training neither men nor women would have the firearms taken from them, and neither would set the gun down in the midst of self-defense. That is not the thing to do, that's obvious to me, and hopefully to you, and to all who want to be defensive.

gdcleanfun I don't think he meant it in any sexist way. I think he was just pointing out that just because you have a gun does not mean you have a free pass to survive an encounter like this, man or woman. This is one of the main reasons I carry an extra mag and sometime a bug. Not only do I have a few more rounds but if I have a malfunction the other mag will come in handy.

Example. In the past three year I've only had this happen to me once but he is what I think he was talking about. After a long day of work and running around afterwards I get home, take my holster off, set it on my cafe table, and to my surprise the mag had popped loose. I'm sure if I were to have drawn it the mag would have dropped out the mag well and if not after the first shot it would have. Luckily, I didn't need it that day and I did have an extra mag that would have cured the problem quickly. It doesn't matter if you’re male or female mechanical devices break and fail. I think that’s all he was getting at.
 
gdcleanfun,

Not to beat this to death, and fully admitting that I could have been more specific in my examples of not having either the weapon or the will when it is needed, none of that goes to the point I was describing (poorly; from the responses it has received :help:) Every security situation is based on a layered defense. Partly to mitigate a lucky or well prepared threat, and partly to mitigate Murphy's law. To use a male example :biggrin:, take mine for home security:

Layer One: I live in a gated neighborhood; if the threat gets through the security for whatever reason,
Layer Two: My home is always locked and we have a peep hole; if they get through that for whatever reason,
Layer Three: I have two dogs that bark their fool heads off for all kinds of noises I can't even hear; if they get through that for whatever reason,
Layer Four: 911 is on speed dial and rarely is anyone home alone; if they get through that for whatever reason,
Layer Five: we have weapons strategically located around the house, and everyone in the family practices with them regularly and knows where they are.

Any one of these layers can fail, even several, but unless they all fail--for whatever reason or combination of reasons--we have the ability to defend ourselves and our property. As you increase the number of layers, the probability of the success for the BG goes down.

Having a weapon in her case--since the 911 layer failed for whatever reason--would have increased the probability of her survival.

My whole point: the more layers you have, the likelihood of a catastrophic failure is reduced.

The sex of the victim matters not at all.
 
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My home security is equally as layered, and I would hope that long before I had to shoot someone, they would give up trying to get into my home. Truth be know, and I think most up here would agree wit hme, I really don't look forward to blowing someone away, but I also feel that if given a reason, I wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger. I'd rather just not have anyone try to assault my home, period.
 

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