GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) — A dispatcher at Guilford Metro 911 answers thousands of calls a year for a variety of reasons.
On Sept. 7, one dispatcher got a call that stopped her and her desk mate in their tracks.
It was 5:30 a.m., and on the other line was a woman fending off an attacker.
FOX8 spoke to a dispatcher who helped save her that morning.
“I was actually sitting next to the person who was taking the call,” said Alexis Johnson, a master level telecommunicator with Guilford Metro 911.
As Johnson turned to listen, things in the Guilford Metro 911 call center got very quiet.
“I looked at the call and thought, ‘Oh my gosh. This was awful,’” Johnson said.
The caller was secretly calling for help while a would-be attacker was coming after her.
“As the female was speaking, she was gathering information,” Johnson said.
A special locator tool called Rapid SOS zeroed in on the caller’s location while Johnson manned the map and looked for units.
“I happened to look at the map, and I saw Guilford County Sheriff’s Office had some units that were going to be a little bit closer,” she said.
In seconds, deputies were sent to the victim’s exact location
The dispatcher was able to hear the person trying to attack her, telling her he intended to sexually assault her.
“We’re doing everything possible to get the units that were closest to her,” Johnson said.
It was only three minutes for deputies to get to her, and two more minutes to have the suspect in cuffs, and the Greensboro Police Department arrived a minute after that to help.
Law enforcement called Guilford Metro to thank them.
“We’ve been looking for this guy, and we’ve finally gotten him off the streets,” Johnson said they were told.
She commended the woman who called 911 for giving as many details as she could as well as the location technology for being able to stop a sexual assault from happening.
Cassie Fambro
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