Police Describe Slow Response to S.F. Shootings

City officials on Friday blamed equipment overload, a shift change and the absence of a fail-safe emergency computer system for the 4 minutes and 4 seconds it took to send police to last week’s high-rise shooting.

A faster response time probably would not have prevented the deaths of eight people and the injury of six others, authorities said.

Although all the victims were shot within the first four minutes of Gian Luigi Ferri’s rampage, “our response time was below average in that area of the city,” Police Lt. Bruce Lorin said.

A 911 dispatcher, referred to by authorities as Dispatcher Y, received the first report of a man with a gun at 2:57 p.m. She sent preliminary information about the incident to police dispatchers 18 seconds later, with a three-second equipment delay, Lorin said.

Fifty-four seconds later, Dispatcher Y ended her shift and Dispatcher X logged on to the system. Thirty-five seconds later Dispatcher X told all units to stand by. She attempted to retrieve additional information about the report from her computer to give officers background before they went to the scene.

As other dispatchers fed her information, her computer screen overloaded. At 3:02 p.m. Dispatcher X sent two police units to the scene, 4 minutes and 4 seconds after the initial call.