Dad of 12-Year-Old Hostage Forced To Wait 96 Minutes as Cops Deal with Violent Protesters
Fear flows in Portland, Oregon, thanks to the antifa-fueled riots that have sucked up Portland police time.
Ask Henry Kirim. On Aug. 22, an intruder broke into his apartment, held his 12-year-old son hostage and then fled, only to be cornered by citizen vigilantes who managed to detain the man for over an hour, waiting for police to arrest him.
They waited.
And waited.
And all for nothing, because by the time Portland police arrived 96 minutes after the initial call, the man had fled, according to The Oregonian.
Kirim went to grab something from his car on that day when a man pushed past him, entered his apartment where his son remained and locked the door behind him. Kirim entered with his spare key and found the man in his kitchen with a knife.
The man charged Kirim as his son ran out of the apartment building. Kirim fled the apartment as well and alerted his neighbors.
At 12:41 p.m., police received the call of a man with a knife. At that point, the boy was still inside the apartment. Eight minutes later, police noted that they were too busy to respond. They were on a special tactical call downtown, where a “violent clash between dueling protesters” was underway.
“The reason why somebody didn’t go right away was because people were all tied up on other calls. That’s a nightmare scenario,” said Deputy Police Chief Chris Davis. “Dispatch was continuing giving updates of this harrowing event going on, and still nobody was able to go. That’s just not acceptable.”
Kirim was bitter.
“They said police would be here.” he said. “And no police came.”
“Every neighbor here was expecting the police to come. We called about a million times, and the police would not show up,” he added.
For 15 minutes the man was ransacking the apartment. Then he fled. Kirim and neighbors gave chase. Less than a block away, they caught and surrounded him.
At 1:22 p.m, police got calls that the intruder with a knife had been brought to bay.
The police still hadn’t come.
At 1:55 p.m., a person told a 911 dispatcher the man they had surrounded was “very high” and residents were “taking it into their own hands since police won’t show.”
Deja Sieles, Kirim’s neighbor, was among the many callers to the police.
“I told them what was going on, and the operator seemed to know because he had received so many other calls,” Sieles said. “I think it’s pretty sad because like anything could have happened to anybody here. It scares me because I can’t rely on the police to help us out.”
At 2:17 p.m., police canine handler Officer Ben Davidson arrived to find that the man had fled about five minutes before his arrival.
Davidson said he was stunned no officer was sent.
“That should be an immediate dispatch,” Davidson said. “I’ve been here 17 years and I’ve never heard of anything like that.”
Neighbor Dianna McAllister said police should have been there.
“A weapon and a child was involved,” she said. “If the police can’t respond to something serious like that, it’s just scary.”
“What if that was just me and my daughter, and he had entered our house. I’m worried for my safety,” she said. “They need to be responsive to stuff like that. Their response time is unacceptable.”
A month later, Kirim still sleeps with fear in his apartment. His son refused to stay there any longer and now lives with Kirim’s sister.
“Everyone is frightened because if the man is not arrested, who knows if he can come back anytime and break in the house,” Kirim said.
“That’s why the neighbors wanted him to be apprehended,” he explained. “Now that he has not been arrested, people are afraid.”
Davis said the incident illustrates “how limited our resources are right now.”
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