Authorities in Nashville, Tennessee have released recordings and a transcript of 911 calls made during the failed execution of Christa Pike on Sept. 30.
The records show that the first 911 caller, a person involved in the execution, did not know the protocol for calling emergency services to the prison. That lack of knowledge and the disjointed response that followed delayed the ability of first responders to get inside the prison gates and deliver emergency medical care.
Dispatch worked for more than 20 minutes to confirm that the first 911 call at 8:40 p.m. was not a prank.
About 20 minutes after someone involved in the execution first called 911 asking for an ambulance, another person at the Tennessee Department of Correction told first responders
they did not need help.
In the first 911 call at 8:40 p.m., the unidentified caller said, "We've been carrying out an execution tonight. ... And we're calling for an ambulance."
The first caller did not have a "code" to tell the dispatcher. The dispatcher said they needed the code to let ambulances onto the prison property if they were not accompanied by police.
The code appears to be a way for agencies to confirm to each other that a call is not a false report.
"How do they … how do they not have a code?" a Fire Department employee said on a call with dispatch. "Is there nobody there that knows the process?"
Dispatch tried calling TDOC Central Control to verify the need for an ambulance. At 8:59, the dispatcher told the TDOC worker that it had responders on standby. The TDOC employee responded, "I'm being told that nobody from our facility called you."
At 9:11 p.m., dispatch said responders were stuck at the prison gates because they were never give a code for entry.
“There's someone at the front gate telling them that this is real and they need to enter, but they can’t enter without police because we never got codes," dispatch said in another call.
Metro Nashville's Emergency Communications Center released the recordings Oct. 12 in response to a records request from The Tennessean.
Pike remains alive. She was released from the hospital and taken to the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, a state women's prison, on Oct. 10.
The Tennessean received recordings of two other incoming 911 calls that night, one from the Tennessee Department of Correction and another from one of Pike's attorneys.
The Tennessean also received recordings of six outgoing calls from dispatch to the Tennessee Highway Patrol, Nashville Fire Department, Metro Nashville Police Department and TDOC. The paper also received a recording of radio traffic from the night.
The Emergency Communications Center provided only a redacted transcript of the first call because the city's legal department determined the call was exempt from public disclosure. Tennessee's public records law exempts many records related to executions.
The transcript of the first call shows the caller told the 911 dispatcher that Pike was unconscious and her breathing was "very labored, and slow." The caller said Pike was unconscious.
Ambulances arrived at Riverbend at about 9:10 p.m.
Confusion over 911 reporting process appears to have delayed response
In the initial call for help, the caller, whose name and role have been redacted, said they were at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.
The dispatcher asked for a code, saying, "I'll wait."
"I'm sorry?" the caller said.
"What's your code?"
"My code?" the caller said. "For reporting an emergency, or you do you [want to] know what the emergency is?"
"What's the code? For the location."
"I, I don't have a code."
"You don't have a verification code?" the dispatcher asked. "I don't" the caller replied.
The dispatcher said "Alright" and asked for more information about the emergency, including asking for the caller's name, whether they are inside the prison and whether they work there. Personal information about the caller was redacted in a transcript provided by the Department of Emergency Communications.
That first call ended with the dispatcher telling the caller they had sent the information along for emergency responders to get there as soon as possible.
Next came a call from DEC to the Nashville Fire Department. The dispatcher said the department got a call from the prison, and said who it came from.
"They said they don't have a code," the dispatcher said. "And it's for the woman who's supposed to be executed. But they said they don't have a code, so we're trying to figure out what's going on."
This story will be updated.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Prison botched the 911 call to get emergency help for Christa Pike
