DETROIT – "It sucks. If they would just do their job and just send people out," said Alicia.
She is the sister of a shooting victim who remains in the hospital in critical condition after she was shot last Friday at a home on Detroit's east side.
Alicia says her 38-year-old sister called 911 several times before the shooting to report a person with a gun. Police weren't dispatched until almost 90 minutes later. By the time police arrived, she had already been shot. It was a delay that wasn't caused by distance because the closest precinct is just a few miles away.
"She is in the hospital right now fighting for her life for something that was not even her fault. On top of it not being her fault and us being so close to the precinct, why wasn't anyone here? One or two cars, as many times as she called," she said.
It's one of two cases of dispatcher negligence in the past four months under review by the Detroit Police Department. The first incident happened in May.
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A dispatcher waited 90 minutes to send police to a fatal stabbing. The two dispatchers involved in the cases have been suspended without pay and could possibly face criminal charges.
Alicia believes if police were sent sooner, her sister would not be in the hospital.
"This should not be where it's at right now but it is, unfortunately, and needs to be rectified regardless," she said.