In what must have been a horrific scene at the home of Stacey Burns on Sunday morning, Mothers' Day, May 10, 2009, one has to wonder how the first EMT's and other first responders reacted. With the highest regard and admiration for what they do, I am worried that today's question may be taken in the wrong way. It is not my intention to criticize or question what happened on that awful morning. My question is a simple one and, once again, because of the status of the investigation, no one will likely be willing to answer it but I'll raise it since there is a hole my description of Sunday morning in the book.
My question for today: Was everyone who arrived at the house that morning aware of what they were going to find or to what they were responding? I ask this only in the interest of establishing that all of the protocols for handling a crime scene were firmly in place before anyone entered the house. I'm sure they were. I assume the response to a medical emergency like a heart attack must be different than the response to a stabbing or murder.
Duke
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As an Ex Dispatcher (Town of Wolfeboro)and ex Police Officer I will explain how this handled. When someone in NH calls 911 the call goes to Concord where a operator asks what the nature of your call is. They than try to get as much info as possible and try to give direction to the caller on first aid or CPR. While this is going on a second dispatcher calls the local dispatch center and passes on what info they have but open the line so you know have a three party conversation going on. Also at this time the Wolfeboro Dispatcher would be dispatching Wolfeboro Fire/EMS and Police along with an Ambulance Crew. The Dispatcher would be passing on info to the responding crews on what they can be expecting from what they are hearing over the open line. On any call where a crime appears to have been committed police are instructed to "secure" the scene from danger before EMS personnel enter the scene so I would assume the first responding police units would have entered the house and secured the area and saw the crime scene first. If the Officer say that the person was deceased he may have and EMS member verify that but if it's obvious than that officer should secure the crime scene and request additional resources such as the department Detective and the State Police Major Crime Unit. When more units arrive witnesses would be gathered and the scene would than be an active crime scene like you've all seen on TV programs.
ReplyDeleteI sincerely hope that the scenario mentioned above is what happened in this case. Of course, the police could easily say that is how the response to the case of Stacey Burns happened.
ReplyDeleteAlso, of course, they haven't. The infamous "ongoing investigation" prevents that simple statement from occurring.
Duker
Well I am in possession of a newspaper article written by Heather Terragni of the Granite State News where Wolfeboro Police Chief Stu Chase requested a meeting with Assistant AG Stretzin who states " That isn't True at all" when asked by Police Commissioner Goodgame if the first responders "messed everything up" so I would say while it may have not been handled by the book it appears that key evidence was not harmed.
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