CO - 911 trace leads police to wrong house where they shot man twice

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By: Frank Bell July 28, 2001 Police on a 911 call were at the wrong house when they shot a man pointing a gun at them, but officials say they remain confident in the department's dispatch system. The man, 49-year-old Jerry Norris, was in serious but stable condition Friday at the Medical Center of Aurora after being shot twice in the chest by an Aurora Police officer who saw him point a weapon at his partner's chest at Norris' home at 15444 E. Princeton Drive. Police Division Chief Terry Jones said although the officers were at the wrong house, it doesn't change the fact that Norris pointed a gun at them after they identified themselves as police officers.

"We're confident the officers felt threatened," Jones said.

Officers ended up at the house after a malfunction in the department's 911 system showed dispatchers the wrong address from a 911 hang-up call.

As part an investigation into the incident, dispatchers were unable to immediately retrieve call-tracking information from the system for detectives but further analysis of the system showed that the hang-up call actually came from a house in the 2300 block of Nome Street in northwest Aurora, nearly 10 miles away. Because that call involved a juvenile, Jones could not elaborate on it but did say the reason officers were sent to the wrong house could be because there was a rescue assistance call to Norris' home on Tuesday for his elderly mother that was somehow stuck in the system. It is unclear whether it is a software or hardware glitch, Jones said, but when the dispatcher clicked a mouse on the phone number of the incoming 911 hang-up call, Norris' address appeared on the screen and was given to the two officers instead of the correct address on Nome. The terminal had not been used for 911 dispatch for two days since the rescue assistance call to the Norris house, Jones said.

When officers arrived at Norris' house the front door was open and they saw Norris crouching in a doorway with his hands behind his back and they identified themselves as police officers. Norris then stood up and leveled the pistol at the chest of the officer standing underneath the porch light, police said. Seeing this, the officer's partner drew his pistol and fired twice at Norris, hitting him in the chest. Norris dropped an unloaded .38-caliber automatic pistol when he hit the floor. The two officers then rendered first aid until paramedics arrived.

Police are still looking into why Norris pointed the gun at officers who had identified themselves and could be clearly seen under the porch light, Jones said.

"We owe an explanation of how we got to the front door," Jones said. "But that does not change the consequences of what happened. We're still confident in our 911 system."

The Arapahoe County District Attorney's Office is reviewing the shooting.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=2148868&BRD=1947&PAG=461&dept_id=168657&rfi=6

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001

Answers

We're still confident in our 911 system.

Confident of failure? In 1999 there were plenty
of stories explaining that the national 911
systems would have a lot of trouble.

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001


NC - New Addresses Delaying County Tax Notices By ANGELA LEONARD Editor

DOBSON -- Think the county tax office lost your new 911 address, or perhaps that you're going to be spared from property taxes this year?

Wrong.

Although tax notices usually go out in early to mid-July, Tax Administrator Ron Norman said the assessments have been delayed this year through a problem involving new tax programs and the vendor that mails the notices.

New addresses, he said, have complicated the matter, but hopefully have been updated so that when the notices are mailed. Changing the addresses wasn't as easy as simply finding names and changing addresses, Norman noted, because many people have two or three addresses in the computer system, but he said the tax office felt that most of the addresses had been updated.

"I guess we'll know for sure after they're mailed," he said. "If we get 45,000 notices back, we'll know we have a problem," he added with a laugh.

Norman said that returned notices aren't that uncommon, and that the tax office usually gets about 1,000 back after the bills are sent out. He expects that number may be slightly higher this year, but won't know until later this week.

He said that notices are scheduled to be mailed out Monday or Tuesday, and that property owners can look for them in their mail boxes sometime this week.

"We had to get them out so that we'd have at least a month for the discount," he said, adding that state statute limits the time for the early payment discount to the end of August. http://www.mtairynews.com/cgi-local/top?section=top&story=taxnotice

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001


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