The Franklin News-Post
P. O. Box 250
310 Main Street, SW
Rocky Mount, Virginia 24151
540-483-5113
Fax: 540-483-8013
|
|
|
| Sheriff's office releases dispatch recordings |
|
Monday, June 6, 2011
By CHARLES BOOTHE - Staff Writer
The Franklin County Sheriff's Office has released the recording of conversations at the dispatch office during the morning of May 30 of the approximate 30 minutes prior to and immediately after the shooting death of Jennifer Agee in Roanoke.
The recordings have no time line, but they can be matched against the call log and Sheriff Ewell Hunt's cell phone log for approximate times.
After the initial phone call was made at 11:07 a.m. to the Franklin County Sheriff's Office dispatch warning that Deputy Jonathan Agee had left his Boones Mill home and was heading for Salem, the officer in charge was immediately notified by dispatch of the call.
At about 11:10 a.m. Sgt. Lewis Wimmer asked for the address of Agee's ex-wife in Salem and was told they did not have it, according to a recording of dispatch conversations.
Wimmer: "Call her (Agee's wife, Julie Angell) back (to see if she has the address) ... We need to notify Salem ... Okay ... We need to call Roanoke County ... make sure the information is correct and if he's on the road, they're just going to have to stop him on the police car until we can figure out what's going on."
Dispatch: "Get Roanoke County to try to stop him?"
Wimmer: "Yea, if he's on the police car and if he's going to Salem to kill somebody and if this information is correct, we need to notify Roanoke County and ask them to try to get him stopped there somewhere."
Dispatch: "I've got the sheriff on hold."
Dispatch (to Hunt at 11:12 a.m.): "Julia Angell just called and said that Jonathan Angell just got in his patrol car with an assault rifle and said he was going to Salem ... "
Hunt: "Have you talked to Salem?"
Dispatch: "No, we just got it and wanted to tell you before I called them ... Lewis (Wimmer) said to tell Roanoke County and Salem to stop him and try to pull him over if they can find him."
Hunt: "All right ... Where's he going to in Salem?"
Dispatch: "South Broad Street. I don't know the numerics."
Hunt: "Okay ... all right.. let me get the number for Salem."
Dispatcher gives Hunt the phone number for the Salem Police Department.
Dispatch: "Do you want someone to call Roanoke County?"
Hunt: "No, let me call them ... Is he going to Broad Street?"
Dispatch: "South Broad Street."
Hunt: "Okay ... all right ... We don't know her address, do we?"
Dispatch: "No, we don't."
Hunt: "Have you tried him (Agee) on the radio yet ... ?
Dispatch: "No."
Hunt: "Try him on the radio ... just by chance he would answer."
Dispatch: "If I get him, what do you want me to tell him?"
Hunt: "Call me ASAP."
Dispatch: "All right, hold on one second."
Hunt: "I doubt that he will answer."
Dispatch: "He's not answering."
Hunt: "Okay .. just try every so often."
At this point, it's unclear who is talking to dispatch and the call came in at about 11:20. a.m.
Caller: "10-4 on your message ... I'm coming your way ... You've probably called Roanoke County already ... He could be on 220 or ... "
Dispatch: "Car 1 (Hunt) told (dispatcher) not to call Salem or Roanoke County ..."
Caller: "Who said not to?"
Dispatch: "The sheriff."
Caller: "What can we do?"
Dispatch: "We're kind of on a holding pattern here."
Someone says, "He's (Agee) supposedly listening on his radio, but he's not answering ... Car 52 (Agee), if you're listening, call the sheriff on his cell phone."
After a short break in the dialogue, Hunt is again talking to dispatch.
Hunt (at 11:27 a.m.): "I've got that ... I called Salem and they ain't called me back yet. I don't know what the hell is wrong with them."
After another short break, another unidentified caller is heard.
Caller: "One my road troopers called and wanted me to get a BOL (be on the lookout) from you ... I don't know what about."
Dispatch: "Let me give you our sheriff's' cell phone number ... We're letting him handle this deal."
Caller: "The sheriff?"
A call then comes in from Roanoke police asking if a canine unit from Franklin County is in the city.
Dispatch: "Our sheriff is telling us not to mention anything ... We were told not to release much information."
During this time, several calls from law enforcement come in, including one from Rocky Mount Police Chief David Cundiff, inquiring about the situation and offering help, but they are told they cannot release information.
According the call log, a call then comes at about 11:35 a.m. saying a "person is down" in Roanoke and a number is given for Hunt to call. The number is for Roanoke Sgt. Anderson.
Hunt calls Anderson at 11:38 a.m., according to Hunt's call log.
Hunt also shortly takes a call from dispatch about the dissemination of information and states that all law enforcement officers should be given information.
Jennifer Agee was allegedly gunned down by Jonathan Agee in the parking lot at a Sheetz in Roanoke at about 11:30 a.m.
Agee has been charged with murder in the case and also is suspected in the shooting of a state trooper on Interstate 81 near Ironto. That trooper was shot in the leg and has been released from the hospital.
Agee was shot multiple times a short time later by two troopers on the Ironto exit of I-81.
Hunt addressed these conversations with dispatch on Sunday, saying that his intention was to call Salem, and that dispatchers could "certainly" have called Roanoke County, as they were instructed to do by Wimmer.
Hunt said he didn't remember the conversation when he was asked by the dispatcher specifically about calling Roanoke County, and he thought they understood he was only calling Salem.
"If I knew there had been a misunderstanding (with dispatch), I obviously would have made myself a lot clearer," he said.
Hunt also said that at no time did he instruct dispatchers not to release information about the situation to law enforcement officers.
"I had said in a conversation (not with dispatch) to not release information to the public," he said. "But I never told them not to release information to law enforcement."
Hunt said dispatchers do not have to check with him before handling a situation, and there has never been a protocol in place that required that since he's been sheriff.
"I have no protocol in asking me first," he said.
Hunt said that, given the information that he had in a very short period of time, "I thought it was the correct way to handle it."
But as far as everyone knowing exactly what do to, "I guess I assumed too much," he said. |
| |
|
|
.jpg)
