Police Report Details 'Mishandled' 911 Call

By Eileen McNamara
Published on 3/13/2008
TheDay.com

Old Saybrook — In his conversation with a 911 dispatcher here on Nov. 30, a man clearly indicated he was having trouble breathing and told the dispatcher, “I don't think I'm gonna make it.”
He also said he hadn't been able to get out of bed for days. He couldn't clearly answer basic questions asked by the dispatcher, David McDonald, even when asked for his name.

Yet McDonald, a veteran dispatcher with 17 years of experience, decided not to send an officer to check on the caller and failed to make a report of the call, both required under department policy.

Listen to the original 911 call

Listen to Valley Shore dispatch call to Old Saybrook police, and Old Saybrook police call to 14 North Meadow Road.

When the man, presumed by police to be Ronald Gebo, and his roommate were found dead two days later in their North Meadow Road home, a shocked and shaken McDonald apologized to his supervisors. He also told them he didn't want to lose his job, then was put on paid leave while they investigated the incident.

Those details are contained in the internal investigation report police compiled of what they are calling a “mishandled” 911 call by McDonald, who quit the department after he was placed on a 10-day suspension as a result of the incident and ordered to undergo additional 911 call training.

Police and autopsy reports on the deaths of Gebo and his longtime friend, Eugene Amoroso, also reveal that Gebo was found lying on his bed, his cell phone nearby.

Amoroso was found sitting at his kitchen table with his head resting atop his right arm and the television on nearby. The tips of his fingers, the police report states, “are beginning to 'mummify.' ”

However, the death certificate for both men fixes their times of death at minutes after 8 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 2, shortly after their bodies were discovered and around the time they were pronounced dead by an EMT who responded to the scene.

“It appeared they had been dead for some time,” a state police investigator reported to the Office of the Chief State Medical Examiner in Farmington, where autopsies on both Gebo and Amoroso were conducted on Dec. 3. Officials there could not be reached to comment Wednesday.

A female Schnauzer was found, alive, under the kitchen table where Amoroso's body was discovered, the police investigation states.

Autopsies conducted on both men determined they each died of natural causes. Amoroso, the report states, died of pneumonia due to a chronic lung disease. Gebo, the medical examiner said, died of cardiovascular disease and alcoholism.

A co-worker of Amoroso, who worked at Town Fair Tire, said Amoroso called in sick around 8 a.m. on Nov. 29. It was, police said, the last known contact anyone had with him.

Relatives of Amoroso have questioned the police department's handling of the 911 call and whether one or both of the men would have lived if McDonald had sent an officer out to the home after the on Nov. 30 call.

They also have criticized police for not telling them that someone from the home placed a 911 call two days before Amoroso and Gebo were found dead by Gebo's daughter.

The police internal investigation, conducted by Lt. Michael Spera, determined that McDonald, besides failing to send an officer to check on the 911 caller, failed to determine the location of the cell-phone call and failed to alert the supervisor on duty that night — his brother, Lt. Timothy McDonald — about the call.

The incident unfolded after a male caller that police said was likely Gebo called 911 shortly after 4 p.m. on Nov. 30. The call went to Valley Shore Emergency Communications Inc.

The call was lost after about 14 seconds, and the dispatcher at Valley Shore, Jeffrey Skau, then contacted the Old Saybrook dispatch center and spoke with McDonald. Skau gave McDonald the cell-phone number of the caller, and McDonald called the man back.

During that two-minute conversation the man alternately told McDonald he was OK, was having trouble breathing, or couldn't walk. He did not answer McDonald's question seeking his name and whether there was anyone else in the home with him.

In statements to police the day after the two bodies were found, McDonald said he thought the 911 call was made in error by an “old” man who was having trouble talking because he had a tracheotomy. He said he did not think the man was having trouble breathing.

He also apologized for his actions and said he “did not mean for this to happen.” He was placed on paid leave that day and later was placed on suspension. He quit his job after his supervisors said he would have to be retrained on 911 protocol.