Arrest made in shooting that prompted New Mexico 911 dispatcher to resign
By Joseph J. Kolb
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (Reuters) - Police in New Mexico have arrested an 18-year-old man in connection with a drive-by shooting that made headlines after it was revealed that an emergency services dispatcher had hung up on a teenage girl who was trying to assist the victim.
Seventeen-year-old Jaydon Chavez-Silver died in the June shooting in Albuquerque and the 911 dispatcher, Matthew Sanchez, resigned late last month. On Saturday, Albuquerque police said they had arrested the suspected shooter in the case, Donovan Maez of Albuquerque, late Friday night.
According to a criminal complaint filed against Maez, Chavez-Silver was at a house party with 16 others when about 10 shots were fired at the house in northeast Albuquerque.
Chavez-Silver, sitting on a kitchen counter, was the only person hit by a bullet. It struck him above the right collar bone.
The complaint did not offer a firm motive for the shooting, but police said there is no indication Chavez-Silver was the intended target.
The incident sparked controversy last month after the Albuquerque Fire Department released a tape of a 911 emergency call in which Sanchez is heard to tell a female caller to "deal with it herself" as she seeks help for a shooting victim.
The caller had told Sanchez she was doing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the male. Sanchez twice asked if the teenager was breathing, according to a recording of the call released to the media.
"He's barely breathing. How many times do I have to fucking tell you?" the caller said.
"OK, you know what ma'am? You could deal with it yourself. I'm not gonna deal with this, OK?," he said, before hanging up on her.
Esperanza Quintero, 17, told Albuquerque television station KOAT that she was the 911 caller and that she believed it was part of the dispatcher's job to keep her calm as she attended to her wounded friend.
"Being on the phone and getting hung up on, that just made me more upset," she told the station.
Chavez-Silver was later taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.
(Editing by Sharon Bernstein and Alan Crosby)
