Dispatcher’s Actions Defended After Killings

Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block on Wednesday strongly defended the actions of a 911 emergency dispatcher who turned down a young woman’s request for police protection after she had been warned that a gunman was en route to her home to kill her.

The 911 call occurred shortly before Maria Navarro, 27, and three house guests were shot to death late Sunday in East Los Angeles.

“Sometimes the decisions we make don’t turn out the way we wish they would . . . (but) that doesn’t make the decision itself faulty,” Block told reporters at a downtown press conference.

Block announced that he had closed his own brief review of the dispatcher’s role in the tragedy.

‘Clear and Present Danger’

“We just cannot respond to every threat unless there is a clear and present danger,” Block said. “The dispatcher did, in fact, function properly. She did not violate any established department procedures. Based upon the circumstances of the call . . . we don’t see or find any fault with the manner in which she handled it.”

A survivor of the 11 p.m. shooting incident, meanwhile, told The Times that guests there, like the Sheriff’s Department dispatcher, were not sure what to make of the initial warning Sunday night.

After Navarro received a telephone warning that her estranged husband was driving to her home--a converted garage in the 3600 block of Lanfranco Street--to kill her, she dialed 911 and tried vainly to get police protection at the house, guest Martin Gamboa said.

After being told that no officers could be sent unless the estranged husband was present, Navarro hung up the phone and was “shaking and crying,” Gamboa said.

“Maria said, ‘What kind of police are these that won’t send help? If he comes and kills people, what are we going to do?’ ” Gamboa recalled.

However, the party continued, with the door to the home unlocked, while a guest stood watch near the street to await the possible arrival of the husband.

“We didn’t leave because he’d threatened to kill her before but never followed through,” Gamboa recalled.

Apparently Scaled a Wall

A short while later, a gunman identified by authorities as Raymond Navarro, 26, apparently scaled a wall and entered the home from the rear, avoiding the lookout and shooting six people, killing four of them.

Two others are still being treated at L.A. County-USC Medical Center. Raymond Navarro, Maria Navarro’s estranged husband, was arrested five hours after the killings and is scheduled for arraignment on murder charges Tuesday in East Los Angeles Municipal Court.

In addressing the case Wednesday, Block said threats of violence are reported to 911 dispatchers “all the time” and that about half of the 50,000 calls that pour in at the East Los Angeles sheriff’s station each year turn out to be non-emergencies. About a fourth of those 50,000 calls are pranks, he said, and a fourth are mistakes or temporary crises that do not require police assistance.

Block said he had no figures on the number of threats reported to dispatchers. He added, however, that patrol cars are sent to respond only about 25% of the time.

“I can tell you that, more times than not, when 911 (calls) are made, there is no emergency when the (officers) get there,” he said. “There is a difference between an immediate threat--a clear and present danger--and something that’s just a threat. If someone’s banging on your door or trying to get into your house, yes, we’ll try to get there to prevent a crime.”

The sheriff emphasized the dispatcher’s instructions to Navarro to prevent the estranged husband from entering the house and to telephone again if he arrived. However, Block did not discuss the woman’s apparent assertion that the attack would be carried out. At one point, Navarro told the dispatcher, “I’m sure he will,” in discussing the threat.

Gamboa said one deputy who later arrived at the small home cursed and asked, “What do you mean, somebody called earlier?” The deputy appeared to express contempt for the 911 system, said Gamboa, who did not know the deputy’s name.

The dispatcher’s decision to withhold assistance continued to draw mixed reactions from community members.

Claudia Cuevas, coordinator of the Domestic Violence Prevention program for the privately run Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women, criticized Block for his “hard-line” defense of the dispatcher.

“She may have been following procedure to the letter, but she did not show any compassion,” Cuevas said. “She did not try to work with the woman to try to find other resources. . . . She could have suggested she call the (police) desk” to further discuss a plan of action.

“She didn’t give (Navarro) any options at all,” Cuevas said. “I thought she just shrugged her off.”

However, Block denied that Navarro was treated callously, pointing out that the veteran dispatcher was both female and a Latina.

Gil Garcia, a member of one East Los Angeles gang-prevention program, also defended the dispatcher’s decision, saying: “Most citizens don’t realize the pressure, the amount of calls, that dispatchers receive on a daily basis.”