A former 911 dispatcher in Houston was recently arrested for allegedly hanging up on callers, and officials suspect she hung up on thousands of calls over a six-month period, PEOPLE confirms.
Crenshanda Williams, 43, said she frequently ended calls if she didn’t feel like talking and in one instance repeatedly hung up on someone reporting a fatal armed robbery, police allege.
An investigation into Williams was launched in April after her supervisors discovered a large number of the calls she had handled that lasted less than 20 seconds, according to charging documents obtained by PEOPLE.
After analyzing the Houston Emergency Center database, detectives learned that “thousands of short calls [had] been attributed to the defendant” between October 2015 and March 2016.
When questioned about the short calls, Williams allegedly told Houston police that she often disconnected calls if she wasn’t in the mood to talk. City officials tell PEOPLE she was fired on Aug. 4.
Williams was arrested on Oct. 4 and charged with two counts of misdemeanor interference with an emergency telephone call, charging documents show. She was released on bond.
PEOPLE was not immediately able to reach Williams for comment, and she does not yet have an attorney. She is expected to appear in court next week to enter a plea to her charges.
A Pattern of Hang-Ups
The charging documents allege that on March 12, a man dialed 911 to report an armed robbery. After walking into a store and hearing someone calling out for help, the man said he’d heard five to six gunshots before retreating to his car and calling police.
But Williams immediately hung up on him, police allege.
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When the man called back, the charging documents allege, Williams sighed before hanging up on him again. The third call went to another operator, and the man able to file a report.
By the time officers were dispatched to the scene, the store’s manager — a father of four — had been shot dead, the charging documents allege.
Police further allege that on March 13, when someone tried reporting several speeding trucks, Williams again cut the call off. After disconnecting the call, she was allegedly heard saying, “Ain’t nobody got time for this. For real.”
