Now former 911 operator Crenshanda Williams, 43, has been arrested after she admitted to intentionally hanging up on callers.
Williams confessed to police officers that she would hang up on “certain people” if she “did not want to talk to anyone at that time.”
Buster Pendley and his wife were two of her victims. Pendley called 911 when his wife collapsed and fell unconscious when a blood clot moved to her lungs. “She was gasping and I could feel her heart beating out of her chest, but I couldn’t get a pulse,” Pendley said in an interview with local NBC affiliate KPRC in Houston, Texas. “The 911 operator answered the phone, and she said, ‘This is Crenshanda, may I help you?‘ Wife’s passed out I need an ambulance,” Pendley said. “She said OK, and she hangs up on me.”
Pendley was able to make contact with a different operator after a second call and an ambulance was sent to his home. Fortunately, Pendley’s wife survived. Authorities believe she ignored thousands of emergencies. Managers at her emergency center reviewed her records and found thousands of “short calls” lasting less than 20 seconds from October 2015 through March 2016.
In another incident, Williams hung up on Hua Li, a convenience store customer who watched an armed robber shoot the manager. Li told KPRC “They just said, ‘This is 911. How can I help you?’ I was trying to finish my sentence and we got disconnected.” Police checked the 911 records and discovered it was Williams who answered Li’s call. Li eventually made contact with another operator, but Zia Arfeen Seddiqui, the 51-year-old manager, bled out and died before police arrived.
The very next day, Williams hung up on a security guard reporting a reckless driver on I-45. Williams hung up the phone before the guard could give her his full name. Williams stayed on the line after ending the call and the recording captured her saying “Ain’t nobody got time for this. For real.”
Williams has only been charged with two counts of interference with an emergency telephone call, a class A misdemeanor. The number of charges will likely rise with more than 800 “hang ups” still under investigation. If convicted, Williams could face up to one year in jail and fines up to $4,000 per count. She is no longer working for the Houston Emergency Center.
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