Robbery victim: Police came late

An investigation is under way to see what took cops so long to respond.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Susan Boyd hopes police use her robbery as a "learning experience" and respond faster to the next such call.
The 34-year-old South Side mother of five was robbed at gunpoint in her driveway by a young black man of slight build, about 19, wearing a white cap. She believes that if police had arrived within a few minutes they would have had a good chance of finding the robber, who arrived and left on foot.
"If he had been in a car, that would have been different," Boyd said Monday.
Boyd called 911 at 9:36 p.m. Friday. The call wasn't dispatched until 9:58, and police didn't arrive until 10:22 -- 46 minutes after the crime took place on East Philadelphia Avenue, records show.
Called councilmen
As she waited for police, Boyd called John Swierz, president of city council, who also called downtown to see why officers hadn't arrived at Boyd's home. She also called her 7th Ward councilman, John Nittoli.
"Shift change" was the explanation given for the delay, she said.
Boyd said Mayor George M. McKelvey described the delay to her as an out-of-the-ordinary isolated incident. She has an appointment Wednesday with a detective who works in the Youngstown Police Department's internal affairs division.
Lt. Rod Foley, YPD spokesman, said Monday that an investigation is under way to determine if there was a breakdown in communication. The investigation, which will require reviewing 911 tapes and activity logs, interviewing the call taker, victim and others, could take several days, he said.
Foley said there are many variables to consider, such as whether all 12 police beats were covered that night in the city. Shift change, he said, shouldn't have made a difference with a priority call such as Boyd's, because certain cruisers are staggered to accommodate the end of one shift and beginning of another.
What happened
Boyd said she and her 6-year-old daughter had attended a church concert and, as they drove home Friday night, saw four young men -- one with a white cap -- walking in the neighborhood. She thought it unusual to see people walking at night, but they were well dressed and she made the decision to pull into her driveway.
The next thing Boyd knew, there was a gun pointed at her head. Scared, she threw her car keys out -- thinking he wanted the car -- and then the robber, in a calm voice, demanded her purse.
Boyd tossed the purse out, and the thief picked it up and ran.
She grabbed her daughter and went into the house to tell her husband what happened. He had just returned from the grocery store with the other four children, ages 5, 3, 2 and 11 months.
meade@vindy.com