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.
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.