A former Texas 911 operator was arrested after she allegedly admitted to hanging up on callers seeking emergency help “because she did not want to talk to anyone at that time,” authorities said.
(CBS8)- Supervisors at the Houston Emergency Center began a probe into Crenshanda Williams’ conduct after they realized an abnormally high number of “short calls” — 911 calls that last 20 seconds or less—had been taken by the 43-year-old operator.
It was revealed that Williams, who began working for the Houston Emergency Center in July 2014, had taken thousands of “short calls” from October 2015 through March 2016, including one in which she allegedly hung up during an incident that saw the owner of a convenience store murdered.
On March 12, Williams allegedly received a phone call from Hua Li, an engineer who called to report a robbery in progress and shots fired, according to charging documents.
Li told police he was buying lottery tickets at Raceway convenience store on FM 1960 West at Mills Road, when he heard someone yelling that that there was a robbery taking place and realized a man with a gun was in the store.
Williams allegedly answered Li’s first call and then immediately hung up. Li made another call to 911, which Williams allegedly answered as well, saying “Houston 911, do you need medical, police or fire?”
But before Li could say more than “this is a robbery,” Williams allegedly hung up again, charging documents said.
Li called back for a third time and was able to report that a man fired multiple times during a robbery and that people may be hurt. By the time police arrived, the store’s owner had been shot and killed.
(Photo Credit: HPD via Inside Edition)