99-year-old attacked in home waited 3 hours for police as 911 dispatchers misclassified call

MILWAUKEE (WISN) – Two emergency dispatchers in Milwaukee have been placed on leave after an older woman was attacked in her home.

The 99-year-old victim waited several hours for police to arrive.

The 911 recordings reveal an unimaginable experience.

Milwaukee’s city dispatch received the 911 call through the emergency response system Life Alert.

The first call came in Monday at 5:15 a.m., followed by two more calls.

In one of the calls, the woman can be heard screaming for help as a man yells out threats.

Three hours passed before police were dispatched.

The disturbing chain of events, first reported by the Journal Sentinel and now confirmed by the city, is under fire.

Tony Bueno, director of the newly created City Emergency Communications Department, said the first call was classified as a welfare check instead of a battery in progress, which would have been a higher response priority.

“For something like this, it’s unacceptable, and I believe that we in the department could have done better,” Bueno said.

Milwaukee police arrested a man in his 20s for allegedly breaking into the woman’s home.

Medics took the 99-year-old, who lives alone, to the hospital with nonfatal injuries.

“If it were my loved one, I would have wanted them to react much quicker, with much more urgency, and that didn’t happen,” Bueno said.

The director of emergency communications said they are reviewing their internal training process to make sure this never happens again.