911 Files Don't Show Why Police Were Sent to Wrong Address
External News Source August 22, 2011 Industry, News
Dispatch center adopts two new protocols after incident
By Scott Monroe, Kennebec Journal
Original publication date: Aug. 20, 2011
AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine Department of Public Safety on Friday released written transcripts of the 911 calls involving the murder of Sarah Gordon in Winslow the night of June 6, shedding new light on the emergency response to the killing.
But the transcripts, which were created in response to an open records request by the Morning Sentinel, still don't answer a fundamental question: Why were police initially dispatched to the wrong address?
The answer remains unclear because the department has blacked out relevant portions of the transcript in which a dispatcher in Augusta spoke to Sarah Gordon on the phone minutes before she was gunned down outside by her husband, Nathaniel Gordon.
What the transcripts make clear, however, is that the situation was frantic and chaotic when Sarah Gordon called at 7:52 p.m. Her call was followed by calls from three witnesses.
"My husband's threatening to kill me and my friends," Sarah Gordon told the dispatcher, in between giving her phone number and address. "He has a gun."
Public safety officials, in blacking out the street name spoken by Gordon and repeated by the dispatcher, cited state law as prohibiting the release of confidential information, even though the street name was already made public by police officials. The Morning Sentinel on Friday morning objected to the redaction of the street name, saying state law did not support that and public safety officials did not respond by 7 p.m.
The department has previously refused to release the audio recordings, citing state law.
What's not in dispute — according to local police who responded to the incident — is that Winslow police were initially sent to 4 Murray Lane, when they should have been sent to the Gordons' address at 4 Marie St.
Because Sarah Gordon called 911 on a cellphone, the call was picked up by the Central Maine Regional Communications Center in Augusta.
The released transcripts show that Gordon initially told the Augusta dispatcher, "Yes, I need a police officer out here, Winslow, (address blacked out)."
"(Address blacked out) in Winslow?" the dispatcher asked.
"Yup," Gordon replies.
When the call was connected to a dispatcher in Waterville, Sarah Gordon only said "hello" and "yes" twice before the line was disconnected. Three minutes after Gordon's initial call came in, the Waterville dispatcher called the Augusta call center back, attempting to find out what had happened to the then-unidentified woman and how to re-connect with her.
"No name, just a domestic situation and husband is threatening to kill her," an Augusta dispatcher says.
"Yeah he was holding a gun to her head when it got disconnected so — all right thanks," a Waterville dispatcher replies.
It's unclear how the Waterville dispatcher knew a gun was being held to Gordon's head; the transcript makes no prior mention of that detail being discussed.
At 7:58 p.m., six minutes after Sarah Gordon called 911, a person described in the transcript as a male witness called the Augusta dispatch center, saying, "Some guy just shot his wife over here on Marie Street."
"What town?" the dispatcher asks.
"In Winslow," he replies.
"In Winslow?"
The Augusta dispatcher asks for the address on Marie Street and the caller says, "It's right on the corner of Marie and Beck."
Shortly after the man is transferred to a Waterville dispatcher, he says, "He just shot her again … he just shot her and now he's walking down to his house."
The caller provides a description of the shooter but did not know the identity of Nathaniel Gordon, saying "these are new neighbors that just moved in."
At 7:59 p.m., a caller described as a female witness called 911, saying the emergency was "on the corner of Marie and Beck Street in Winslow" and "a woman's been shot, her husband shot her numerous times." The caller said that the woman was dead.
Just as that call is transferred to Waterville, the Augusta dispatcher asks, "Marie and Clifton right?"
"Marie — Marie and Beck Street" the caller responds.
There is no Clifton street in Winslow; only Clinton and Clifford avenues.
At 8:02 p.m. — 10 minutes after Sarah Gordon's 911 call — another woman calls 911 to report the shooting, telling the Augusta dispatcher, "It's taking them forever to get here; she's lying on the lawn. The cops were just here a little while ago; it's taking forever."
"They're on their way ma'am, they are on their way. Do you have any updates for us?"
The caller indicates that she could then see police arriving and couldn't tell whether the woman was dead.
"I don't dare go out because I'm afraid I'm going to get shot," the caller says, and is told to keep her doors locked.
Then the caller remarks: "Now they're not even going to the right place, they're taking off — going to the wrong place."
When she is transferred to Waterville, the caller states: "The guy's running — the guy's friggin' running."
After some confusion about where the suspect was running and apparent discussion with other people nearby, the caller concludes: "I don't know where he is, nope; he's running through the neighborhood somewhere."
Police have said Nathaniel Gordon drove away in his wife's car, though it remains unclear when he fled the scene. He shot himself later that night after being chased by Maine State Police on Interstate 95 in Gray.
In the days following the murder and suicide, Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, said Public Safety Commissioner John Morris ordered an inquiry into the apparent address confusion. McCausland said late Thursday that the inquiry was complete, but he didn't know what it had concluded.
In the aftermath of the Winslow case, the Augusta dispatch center adopted two new protocols, according to McCausland: Callers are asked to spell out street names if the name is in question, and it uses GPS technology on cell phones, if it's available, to pinpoint the coordinates of the call.
Contact Scott Monroe at 861-9239 or [email protected]
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