911 Caller Contradicts Officer’s Account

Posted by | July 29, 2009 18:16 | Filed under: Top Stories


Lucia Whalen, speaking out during a news conference about her 911 call and her actions on the scene where Professor Gates was arrested, says at no time did she mention race.


Ms. Whalen’s statements contradict the police report filed by Sgt. James Crowley, who said Ms. Whalen told him outside Mr. Gates’s home that she had seen “what appeared to be two black males with backpacks” on the porch of the yellow single-family house.

 

Ms. Whalen said that the only words she exchanged with Sergeant Crowley in person were, “I was the 911 caller.” She said that he responded, “Stay right there.”

 

Ms. Whalen is clear that she never mentioned race: not during the 911 call until asked (and even then she said she wasn’t sure about the race of those involved), and not during her interaction with Officer Whelan at the scene.


On Monday, the Cambridge police released the tape of Ms. Whalen’s 911 call in which she told the dispatcher she had “no idea” if two men — who turned out to be Professor Gates and his driver — were breaking into the house, repeatedly mentioning that they might live there. She said that the two men pushed a door in with their shoulders, and that she was unsure “if they live there and just had a hard time with their key.”

 

Ms. Whalen did not mention the men’s race until a dispatcher asked her if they were black, white or Hispanic.

 

“There were two larger men,” she said in the audio released Monday. “One looked kind of Hispanic, but I’m not really sure,” she said, adding that she did not see what the second man “looked like at all.”

 

Here’s the 911 call:



And here is her news conference:


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Copyright 2009 Liberaland
By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.

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