14-year-old assault victim waits more than an hour for Dallas Police help
Two masked men robbed, assaulted and shot at a 14-year-old boy Monday afternoon -- but police did not arrive on the scene until more than an hour after the 911 call was placed.
Kevin Crockett was walking home on the intersection of Tioga Street and Treetop Lane when the men attacked him.
"He shot the gun and said 'This is not a joke. I will shoot you' and he was telling me to give him my phone and then the other guy came and hit me in the face and then hit me in the back of the head and I fell," Crockett said.
Crockett ran to neighbor Sammy Smith's house after the incident took place. Smith called 911 twice and it took an hour for police to arrive.
"It shouldn't have taken that long," Smith said. "Over an hour, come on now. That don't make no sense."
According to Dallas Police, officers were busy handling higher priority calls at the time. A Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesman says that an ambulance was on its way to the location when Smith said, "What do I need to do to get y'all here, shoot somebody?" Smith's comments raised concern for the first responders' safety.
"Fire personnel are not expected to knowingly enter hostile or dangerous situations involving suspects, weapons and/or threats of violence without police assistance," DFR said in its statement to FOX4,
DFR says that in light of a recent attack on firefighter paramedic William An, statements like the one Smith made will delay response times.
Crockett's mother Sophia Silvas agrees that it is important to keep first responders safe, but is still frustrated that it took so long for her son to get help.
"It's not fair that our children and neighborhood should suffer because they don't have enough police officers," Silvas said.