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Police Release Second 911 Call in Coppin Shooting
By
Jen Chung
Published Nov 15, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Nov 15, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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The second 911 call between police shooting victim Khiel Coppin's mother and a 911 operator seems to suggests some misinformation. Coppin's mother Denise Owens claimed she told the 911 operator who called her back that her son did not have a gun. Here's an excerpt (you can read the transcript here and hear it here) of the call at 7:05PM, 14 minutes before police shot at 18-year-old Coppin 20 times:
Female: Hello
Operator: Hi Maam did you call the Police
Female: Yes.
Operator: Can you give me the description of the person with the firearm
Female: He does not, hmmm, Who says he does not have a firearm?
Operator: Say it again
Female: He is tall, light skin
Operator: Male black
Female: Hmm hmm
Owens ends the call with, "I'm flipping out, I can't handle this."
The NY Times reports that the five police officers who fired at Coppin had never shot at people before; in only, the few that had fired their guns on the job had fired them at pit bulls who were attacking them. Thinking that Coppin was armed, the police fired and 10 of the 20 bullets hit him. Coppin was actually only holding a hairbrush and he died at a hospital.
The Reverend Al Sharpton's National Action Network spoke out against one of the officers, Sergeant Carl Carrara, for being in a band called EDP - the slang for "emotionally disturbed person." The NAN's Taharka Robinson said, "They are mocking and making light of individuals who have that illness. Off-duty, on-duty - if you can sit there and engage in an activity that is disrespectful, insensitive to individuals with an illness, you don't need to be on the force." The NYPD says that Carrara's band is acceptable under the department's off-duty guidelines.
There is also focus on the medical crisis teams that respond to emergencies. Coppin's mother had called Interfaith Medical Center call earlier on Monday. A team arrived, but Coppin had left; Owens had argued that if the crisis team waited an extra five minutes, they might have been able to help her son. A psychologist who once worked in the Interfaith crisis unit said that teams aren't able to wait when they are visiting a number of homes each day.
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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