Posted on 09/03/2004 10:13:21 PM PDT by BenLurkin
LANCASTER - The waiting and frantic worry for a Lancaster couple began the moment they learned their 15-year-old daughter was beaten bloody at Jane Reynolds Park while trying to defend her two younger siblings, who were attacked by a group of youthful assailants.
With deputies spread thin at a number of urgent calls and staffing commitments on Friday night, which was the opening night of the Antelope Valley Fair, the couple would wait nine hours before having a chance to give law enforcement the account of their children's terrifying ordeal.
Capt. Carl Deeley, commander of the Lancaster Station, said the attack call wasn't given the priority it warranted by station dispatchers, perhaps because, based on the initial 911 call, there didn't appear to be serious injuries and the caller herself was notably calm.
An exceptionally busy Friday evening, he said, put the call on hold even longer.
"The bottom line is we messed up," Deeley said. "It could have been handled better, but it was not a case of us being callous, not going to the call."
Two other significant incidents were in progress at the time of the park attack, Deeley said.
Some of the waiting the victims' family endured gave way to a measure of relief on Tuesday, with news that three of the suspected juvenile attackers were arrested by Los Angeles County sheriff's investigators.
"If it happened to one of my children or one of my grandchildren, I would really be upset. I wouldn't understand," Deeley said.
Family members lauded the department's handling of the case once deputies grasped what had happened and praised the detective work that is producing arrests.
"One of our top priorities is anything that occurs in the parks or the schools. We should have sent somebody out. It would have helped if we knew the serious nature; we could bring it up a notch."
At least two more arrests are expected. Some, if not all, of the suspects have had multiple encounters with the juvenile justice system, sheriff's officials said Wednesday.
As the investigation continues, sheriff's officials ask that anyone who may have witnessed the attack at Jane Reynolds Park contact the Lancaster Sheriff's Station at (661) 948-8466.
This week's arrests appear to be a quick conclusion to a case that got off to anything but a fast start.
The victims' relatives, who didn't want to be identified by name in this article, waited at least nine hours for a sheriff's deputy to respond to reports of the attack.
Like the attackers, the victims were children.
The ages of the children who were set upon were 15, 12 and 9 years old.
Ironically, they had gone to Jane Reynolds Park for a youth self-defense class when they were accosted by a group of two girls and three boys ranging in age from 17 to 10 years old.
Members of the assaulting group apparently demanded the 12-year-old girl's colorful bracelets, then started throwing rocks at her 9-year-old brother.
The 15-year-old sister stepped in front of her siblings after her brother was punched, and she bore the brunt of the group's punches and kicks.
The 15-year-old girl was knocked down and choked by a female, then kicked in the head by the others until she faded out of consciousness. The 12-year-old also was knocked down and kicked in the ribs before the suspects fled.
Although the attackers were identified as black youths and the children who were attacked were white, law enforcement officials attributed the attack to "thuggishness" rather than racial animosity.
It was an incident of tough kids, some with records, setting upon outnumbered and vulnerable prey. Some of the street language reportedly used by the assailants, such as "take care of business" had overtones of street gang slang.
Although no deputies responded to the park in the hours after a worker there called 911 to report the incident, paramedics transported the shaken children and their injured sister to Antelope Valley Hospital. The family spent five hours at the hospital and still no deputy arrived.
The sheriff's station received a call from hospital staff about 9:30 p.m. but could not send anyone, apparently because of a range of other commitments that night, Deeley said.
On the way back from the hospital later that night, the mother stopped at the Lancaster Sheriff's Station, and still no one was available to take a report.
"I just needed someone to say something to me," the mother said. "They told me it was going to be a while. The whole town was going crazy. It was very frustrating. That was hard."
It wasn't until well after midnight - at least nine hours after the 4 p.m. attack - that a sheriff's deputy came to the family's Lancaster home.
There were reasons, but not excuses, for why Lancaster deputies answered other calls rather than rolling immediately to the park, Deeley related. Some of those reasons had to do with how the call was classified.
Close in time to the park assault, numerous deputies were pursuing a fleeing car thief about 4 p.m., and had set up a large containment area, including a sheriff's canine unit.
Then Tommy's hamburger restaurant in Lancaster was robbed at gunpoint at 4:10 p.m., claiming the time of other deputies. Those events coupled with opening night at the Antelope Valley Fair and the ensuing traffic problems complicated matters, Deeley said.
And then there was the 911 call, made from the cell phone of a park employee who declined to comment for this story.
Mayor Frank Roberts, who was called several times to obtain comment about the matter this week, did not return calls to the Valley Press.
Because the first report of the park assault on the children was placed with a cell phone, it first went to a California Highway Patrol dispatcher before being passed over to the Lancaster Sheriff's Station. The call was just under three minutes in duration with several lengthy pauses. The caller, who did not see the actual incident, maintained an unalarmed voice throughout.
Caller: "The kids that got beat up are in the office. The ones that did it are down the street."
Dispatcher: "Do the kids need an ambulance?"
Caller: "Um … hold on … (to children:) 'do you guys need to go to the doctor?' … (to dispatcher:) They were kicked and punched in the head."
The call concluded with the dispatcher telling the caller that paramedics would be sent to the scene.
An ambulance had already arrived by the time the children's frantic mother was alerted and made it to the park.
Deeley said that in hindsight, a deputy who was at the car thief containment should have been cut loose to respond to the park attack. It's the best, and often the only, way to get witness statements and possibly catch the suspects before they leave the area.
As the night progressed, two deputies on two separate occasions were sent to take the report and on each occasion the deputies were rerouted for calls deemed more serious.
"It's not unusual for us to have a situation where we need to make a call for immediate response or whether it can be put on hold," Deeley said. "It's a judgment call, and the majority of the time our experienced group makes the right call."
Despite their initial frustrations over the response lag, the victims' family said they have been impressed with the work by the Sheriff's Department.
"The first deputy who came, he was very professional," the father said. "That made us feel a lot better. He made us feel like he cared about what happened. And the detective, we're really pleased with how he's doing his job. He's been real hands-on trying to explain everything to us, coming over here. …" News of the arrests elated the family, he said.
"I don't know how to describe that. … all the happiness around here," the father said. "Everyone was so miserable, but now everyone is so happy."
Added his daughter, who is recuperating from deep bruises and scrapes on her neck and face: "I'm glad it gets them off the street for everyone."
She said she still has some fear of retaliation from the suspects, and isn't sure if she'll be able to return to the park.
"I don't know if I'm going to be able to go back. It's going to be hard," she said.
Her father said he never worried much about the safety of his children at the park, but all of that changed last Friday.
"They're not going alone (to the park) if they do go. I see kids alone there now, and I'm fearful for them," he said.
Deeley said the Lancaster Sheriff's Station has added the park areas surrounding rental properties to its LAN-CAP program, which targets criminal activity in and around rental units.
That's Liberal claptrap for ya. Minorities can't engage in hate crimes; only whitey.
I won't even go into the whole 9-hour-wait routine by the police. Calling 911 ain't nothing but government sponsored dial-a-prayer. And thanks to the gun-grabbers, all thugs, criminals and terrorists know that their intended victims are typically disarmed.
What a fouled-up world.
This could not possibly be a race-based hate crime. The victims were white & the perps were black.
What state?
Fruit of the breakdown of the family. How much do you want to bet there is no loving father present in those kids'lives.
Fruit was a bad choice of words.
If it were whites attacking a smaller number of preferred minorities, you would have heard "hate crime", and they would have been on it like stink on excrement.
Mexifornia, where else?
Political correctness has turned us in to prisoners in our own homes.
Watchman: California I believe since Lancaster is in CA.
In my experience with working with the police, this kind of thing tends to only happen when things are busy. Sounds like the dispatcher wasn't relayed the seriousness of the crime by the reporter (as was implied in the article). The dispatcher may have felt this was just a bit of bullying by some kids and not a serious attack which is what happened.
However, it is truly sad that it took so long for a response to be made, I would be furious if I were that family.
California.
"Although the attackers were identified as black youths and the children who were attacked were white, law enforcement officials attributed the attack to "thuggishness" rather than racial animosity."
Hmm, 5 against 3...
Having grown up in a NYC Housing projects in the 60's and 70's - I can tell you from first hand experience that these thugs enjoy outnumbering thier victims.
You'd be amazed at the attitude change when it's one on one...
If these were gangbangers or banger wannabes, there's no way race didn't enter into it -- race is too big a part of what the gang rats are about.
Here in southern Mexifornia, parks that used to be great places to take your kids have now become battlegrounds and spray-painted gang territory. Sickening.
Actually, there are several Lancaster's in the U.S. I realized it was probably California when I read about Los Angeles Counter police several paragraphs into the story. My point was that the poster always needs to include the name of the state when reporting local events.
We get caught up in our local story and forget that some of the readers of this forum are not even from the U.S.
Send the monsters (my other words would get my post stricken or me banned) to prison for for ten years of gang rape.
Close in time to the park assault, numerous deputies were pursuing a fleeing car thief about 4 p.m., and had set up a large containment area, including a sheriff's canine unit.
What strikes me is the above! Since when is a carjacking more important than three children who were beaten? What the heck is wrong with this picture? No doubt they couldn't wait for the race to begin so they could tool around LA at 120 mph. hunting the bad guy.
boy...i sure do hate to think about this happening to my kids. i think i'd get a rope.
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