Subject: [NEXTEL-1] 911 bungler a rookie- Operator lost in confusion while teens sank in sound

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2003 16:55:02 -0500

911 bungler a rookie- Operator lost in confusion while teens sank in sound

By MICHELE McPHEE, RALPH R. ORTEGA and GREG GITTRICH
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

The city 911 operator who bungled a desperate
call for help from four teenage boys on a sinking
rowboat was a rookie who admits she didn't
know what to do, the Daily News has learned.

The operator has told people she could not hear
17-year-old Henry Badillo as he cried out his
location over a cell phone in the waters off City
Island on Friday night, a source said yesterday.

The operator said all she picked up was Henry
saying they were "on the Long Island Sound."

She didn't hear him add that they were "in a boat
off the coast of City I-," the source said,
explaining that wind was howling into Henry's cell phone.

Seconds later, Henry screamed - "We're gonna die! - and the connection went
dead.

The 911 operator had been on the job for a few months, sources said.

She said she repeatedly tried to type "Long Island Sound" into a 911 computer,
but the system spat back: "No address for Long Island Sound."

Not knowing what to do, she turned to a more experienced supervisor.

Both logged the call - but did not alert police, delaying a search for nearly 14
hours.

"No conscientious person would receive a call for help and not do anything,"
seethed Henry's 45-year-old father, who shares his son's name. "Were they asleep
in the control room? Were they drunk? To me, that would be the only
explanation."

Henry's mother, Virginia, demanded: "I do want the person who did this ungodly
decision to be held accountable."

The identities of the operator and her supervisor were being kept secret.

But the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau interviewed both yesterday - and police said
disciplinary action was expected to be taken against the supervisor.

Police released a full transcript of the 911 call last night. A mother of one of the
teens said it lasted 31 seconds, but there were only 12 seconds of conversation.

"Right after the kid said they were going to die, you could hear them hit the
water," said a city official who heard the tape.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has said the operator and her supervisor
failed to follow new department procedures requiring all such water distress calls
to be relayed to the NYPD harbor unit.

A police boat was anchored under the Triborough Bridge, 30 minutes from the
waters off City Island. An air rescue unit could have flown a scuba team to the
area in 20 minutes.

Still, even if an immediate rescue attempt was made, authorities said it is unlikely
the boys would have been found alive in the dark, frigid water.

Trip to Hart Island

As the search for the boys continued yesterday, police took a group of their
friends to Hart Island, where authorities believe the teens were heading on a
stolen, 8-foot dinghy.

The boys and their friends had taken boats from City Island to Hart Island before
to party and explore abandoned missile silos, sources said.

The families of two of the missing boys - Andrew Melinkov, 16, of Manhattan, and
Carlo Wertenbaker, 16, of the Bronx - went to the 45th Precinct stationhouse
yesterday to listen to the tape.

A description of the call from a lawyer for Andrew's father backs the operator's
account.

Sources said the entire call can be made out when it is enhanced. They added that
911 operators have the capability to play back calls if they don't hear something
clearly - but apparently this was not done.

http://www.nydailynews.com/01-29-2003/news/story/55457p-51967c.html

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