D.C.’s 911 problems are taking a turn tonight. The News4 I-Team found out D.C. police officers are now trying to figure who leaked key information to News4.
Today a D.C. police Internal Affairs agent contacted News 4 reporter Ted Oberg trying to find out how we knew about a family’s unanswered 911 call for help.
Last week News4 reported a D.C. family said they called 911 repeatedly for several minutes. They said 911 didn’t pick up. They were trying to get help for their 5-month-old child who couldn’t be revived after a nap. They eventually got through to 911, but the baby died. We don’t know if the delay would have changed that outcome.
D.C.’s Deputy Mayor for Public Safety released a timeline of the calls 911answered, but that timeline didn’t include the calls that didn’t get through. The News 4 I-Team learned of the family’s unanswered calls from two public safety sources who each had details of an internal police record.
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Today an internal affairs agent called Oberg and asked what information we got and who gave it to us. News4 did not provide that information. Protecting our sources is an obligation we take seriously.
The Internal Affairs agent admitted he knew Oberg was unlikely to answer the questions, but said the commander of internal affairs assigned him to investigate it and ask them.
The call comes 13 days after the desperate but unanswered 911 calls for help from those parents. News4 hasn’t heard from the 911 director Heather McGaffin or Lindsey Appiah, the deputy mayor in charge of D.C. public safety on camera about the six 911 outages this year , but now have heard from an internal affairs officer.
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News4 asked both D.C. Police and D.C.’s Deputy Mayor for Public Safety why they think a leak investigation is worth conducting. Neither got back to us.
