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Buffalo Man Questions BPD Response to Bullethole Calls

Buffalo Man Questions BPD Response to Bullethole Calls
Credit: wgrz
Apparent Bullet hole found in window of child's bedroom on Chadduck Avenue in Buffalo

Buffalo, NY - Imagine sitting in your home and having a bullet come sailing through your child's bedroom. That's what a Buffalo landlord says happened to one of his tenants over the weekend.

Ibrahim Khatib says he was at his Riverside property at 156 Chadduck Avenue, working on the downstairs apartment when the tenants asked him to call 911. He says he did but claims the police never showed until 2 on Your Side contacted them.

A police spokesman says the call went to the Erie County 911 system and then police. But Khatib still questions their response.

Khatib is puzzled. First he wants to know why someone fired what appears to be a gunshot through the double pane back window at the back of his apartment..

Second, he has this question "If we can't call the police to help us when there's a gunshot into a child's window, then I don't know who I'm supposed to call."

That's right. The hole is in the window above the bed of one of the boys ages 7 and 9 who sleeps in the room. You can still see some shattered glass on the bed, right next to the Teddy Bear print. No one was hurt in the incident, which happened about 7:00 Sunday night, and it's not clear if anyone was in the room at the time. But the mother who is a recent refugee from Nepal was obviously upset.

"The mother in this case said she saw somebody in the yard next door who she said...thought he had a black handgun and she did hear a sound...she imitated it as a pap, pap, pap sound," Khatib said.

Khatib says he called 911 immediately and was told police would respond. He says he called three more times until 11 PM.

"They said yeah...we have that on file. You don't have to call again. So I said do you have any idea when they're coming? She said...no...we can't give you that kind of information," Khatib said.

Finally just as he was preparing to leave the home Khatib says "I saw a police car drive down the street. So I started waving. I figured that's gotta be the one. And he just kept going. I mean even if you're not responding to a call you'd think a guy waving desperately...he just kept driving by."

Buffalo Police spokesman Mike DeGeorge says he determined that Buffalo Police were not dispatched for this call by the Erie County 911 Center until 10:50 PM and when officers arrived there was no one at the home.

Erie County spokesman Peter Anderson says a call did come in to 911 at 7:23 PM Sunday about what was thought to be a bullethole in the window. Anderson says the call was then sent to Buffalo Police Dispatch at 7:24 as a "Criminal Mischief" with the explanation that the caller did not indicate the incident had just happened but did say it happened sometime in the last hour. Anderson says "there did not appear to be any imminent or ongoing situation."

Calls on this incident were also made to 911 at 8:16 PM, 8:45PM , and 9:34 PM with BPD notified each time according to Anderson.

Again Erie County 911 confirms that BPD did dispatch officers at 10:48 PM but "the call was closed at 11:19 PM" because there was no one at the home.

Anderson goes on to say that calls were forwarded to BPD within one minute of them being received. He states "the priority list of how and when calls are responded to is set by BPD and not Central Police Services."

Khatib says officers did come to the home on Tuesday afternoon after calls were made by 2 on Your Side to police. He says the officers believe it is a bullethole. They filed a report and said they will investigate.

2 on Your Side has filed a FOIL request to obtain or listen to the specific 911 calls.

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