The widow of slain Cincinnati police Officer Daniel Pope is circulating a letter asking officers to support her efforts to oust the 911 dispatchers whose confusion delayed paramedics' response on the Dec. 5 night her husband and his partner were gunned down.
Linda Pope's letter joins several others that officers' wives are circulating calling for the firings of Angela Gibson and Jean Boiman, the 911 operator and police dispatcher on duty the night Alonzo Davenport shot Officer Pope and Specialist Ronald Jeter. One letter also seeks the termination of Pat Cipollone, the supervisor on duty.
On the night the officers died, two 911 calls came in at 11:59 p.m., alerting authorities to the shooting on West Hollister Street in Clifton Heights. But it took more than 45 minutes for a frantic officer to find the dying officers and call for ambulances.
Survival not issue
Autopsy results showed that the officers, who had been trying to arrest Mr. Davenport on a domestic violence charge, probably wouldn't have survived if treatment had been immediate.
But that hardly mattered to letter-signers.
Lynne Richter, whose husband is the District 4 officer who persuaded dispatch supervisors to investigate the 911 calls, is among those who have written and circulated a letter.
''The coroner said it wouldn't have made a difference if help got there right away,'' said Mrs. Richter. ''But at least other officers would have been there holding their hands as they died.'' The plainclothes officers died within hours of the shooting at University Hospital. Mr. Davenport, 20, their assailant, fled the West Hollister Street apartment and committed suicide a few blocks away.
Internal investigators are expected to release their report on the dispatch confusion Friday, a Cincinnati police spokeswoman said.
Homicide detectives also should release their findings from the criminal investigation into the shootings then, she said. In Mrs. Pope's Jan. 5 letter - addressed to officers and their families - she urges readers to ''influence'' the mayor, safety director and city manager to ''make the right decision'' and fire the dispatchers.
''Two cops lay dying for 48 minutes. This could have been someone you cared for,'' she wrote. ''Do not wait until the wrong decision jeopardizes the safety of another officer.''
Many letters sent
Other community members have sent dozens of signed copies of Mrs. Richter's Jan. 5 form letter to city offices, calling for the dispatchers' ouster.
''These individuals grossly mishandled the calls and should be immediately dismissed from city employment,'' the letter states. ''To do their job effectively, the public safety community needs to be confident in the people working in communications. They have lost confidence in these three employees.''
Cheryl Schemenaur said she hardly hesitated when Mrs. Richter asked her to sign the letter.
''Lives were at stake,'' the 43-year-old Delhi Township woman said. ''People need to be held accountable.''
Agreed signer Carrianne Craig, 22, of Hebron, Ky.: ''It makes you feel unsafe. If they can't even protect their own cops, how can they protect us?'' '
