A D.C. firefighter who was shot over the weekend while being robbed ended up calling his own unit for help,…
A D.C. firefighter who was shot over the weekend while being robbed ended up calling his own unit for help, after his 911 call was not picked up quickly.
Gary “Zeke” Dziekan says about three minutes had gone by after he called 911, so a good Samaritan offered his phone to call for Engine 18 directly.
“When the firehouse answered I just said, ‘it’s Zeke I’ve been shot I need help.’” Dziekan says.
Despite bleeding from the chest profusely he had the presence of mind to try and stop his own bleeding, and ask a good Samaritan to call his unit Engine 18. “ I had 911 on the speaker phone below me and I asked him to pull his phone out and I gave him the number to the fire house.”
The D.C. Office of Unified Communication, responsible for 911 calls released a statement and a detailed chart of the 911 call activity. The statement says at the time of the shooting Saturday night, it received a spike of calls for help, about twenty calls in 10 minutes.
“The initial call for this shooting was received at 10:11:17 p.m., the call was processed and OUC dispatched DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department units at 10:12:22 p.m.”
The statement goes on to say. “Due to the spike in call volume surrounding the incident, OUC processed calls for service as quickly as possible. We recognize that during incidents which create an increase in call volume, some callers are placed in queue while call takers gather pertinent information and provide lifesaving direction to other callers.”
The chart of the calls has more detail.
U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro says so far it does appear help was on the way quickly in this shooting. “ It looks right now like it was pretty good, what you’ve got is the victim who clearly made a phone call then asked the neighbor to make a phone call, in the meantime there was help coming out.”
She adds however the response is still being investigated. “We are analyzing this situation and the call, what time it came in how long it took to get the response out.”
Dziekan says he knew if anything ever like this happened to him he could call his co-workers for help. He says they saved his life.
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Kyle Cooper
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