Global Courant
A woman who received a desperate text from her husband saying he had been taken hostage said on Tuesday she called 911 but police didn’t respond until about an hour later, when he was shot and killed.
On its online police journal, the Colorado Springs Police Department said it found two dead adult males Friday at the location that Talija Campbell said she feared her husband Qualin Campbell was being held by another man. It said officers responded to a report of a shooting there at 2:09 p.m
Talija Campbell said she called 911 just after 1pm when her husband, a father of two, texted him with his location and a photo of a man sitting next to him in his car. He then sent messages saying “911” and “Send Please!” She called 911.
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Campbell said she told a dispatcher she believed her husband was being held hostage, described his car and its location, which was about a mile from Colorado Springs Police Department headquarters. She was then transferred to a dispatcher responsible for taking calls in Colorado Springs. The first dispatcher informed the second dispatcher of what Campbell reported, she said, before Campbell said she re-explained what she knew to the second dispatcher. The dispatcher said an officer would check and contact her, but there was no sense of urgency, Campbell said, so she drove to the site herself.
This photo by Talija Campbell shows a desperate text exchange between Campbell and her husband that indicated he had been taken hostage on June 2, 2023 in Colorado Springs. (Talija Campbell via AP)
When she arrived, Campbell said she immediately recognized her husband’s company car in a parking lot. She said when she saw her husband fall into the car next to another man, she fell to her knees and started screaming. As other people gathered, they discussed whether to open the car door after seeing a gun on the lap of the other man, who appeared unconscious but had no visible injuries, she said.
Campbell said she decided to open the door to try and save her husband, who had been bleeding but found no pulse in his neck or wrist.
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“I shouldn’t have been the one there, the first person to respond,” she said.
She said her husband’s uncle, who was also at the scene, called the police to report that Qualin Campbell was dead.
When asked about Campbell’s 911 call and the police response to it, police spokesman Robert Tornabene said he was unable to comment because an “open and active criminal investigation” into the deaths was ongoing.
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Campbell’s lawyer, Harry Daniels, said she wants answers from the department about why it didn’t respond to her call, saying Qualin Campbell might still be alive if they had.
“I can’t think of anything that has a higher priority than a hostage situation, except maybe an active shooter,” he said.
