YOUNGSTOWN POLICE \ Investigation sequence

Records show the sequence of events began with Patrolmen Michael Brindisi and Stephen Price, who were working their South Side beat on the 9:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. shift in a two-man car.

Brindisi came in off the road at 2:45 a.m. to fill in for the regular overnight (9 p.m. to 5 a.m.) radio operator in the 911 Center who went home early with permission.

A stabbing on East Auburndale Avenue on the South Side was called in at 3:28 a.m. The call was handled by an officer working the West Side, an officer assigned to the downtown beat and an officer not assigned to a beat. The first officer arrived at 3:35 a.m. Brindisi could have dispatched Price to the scene but didn’t. The stabbing injury was not life-threatening.

At 3:52 a.m., video from the 911 Center shows that Price entered the center, chatted with Brindisi and left at 4:08 a.m. A call to take a report had come in from Falls Avenue at 3:47 a.m. that Price could have handled but didn’t. Brindisi, who should have dispatched Price to the scene, told the 911 call taker that no officers were available. The woman on Falls said she had been beaten but didn’t want medical attention, just an officer to take photos of her. The call was not dispatched until 5:52 a.m. — to a day-shift officer. The call turned out to be unfounded.

At 4:15 a.m., Price took his early quit, telling Brindisi by phone.

Patrolmen Brian Butler and Edward Kenney were working their 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. South Side beat in a two-man car. At 3:35 a.m., they were on the scene of a break-in at an empty school on Oak Hill Avenue. A K-9 officer was there first and had his dog search the building. Butler and Kenney left around 4:15 a.m. so that Kenney could drop Butler off at the 911 Center to work the radio. Kenney returned to the school. Butler entered the center at 4:30 a.m. and Brindisi left and went home early. Also, Brindisi did not have permission to call Butler in to work the radio.

The need for a car to be towed from Southern Boulevard at East Auburndale Avenue was called in at 4:44 a.m. The car had been involved in a hit-skip. Two officers, each in one-man cars working the East Side, were dispatched to the scene at 4:49 a.m. and both arrived at 4:57 a.m. Kenney could have responded but didn’t. Price could also have responded but he’d already gone home.

Kenney didn’t clear his call at the school until 5:53 a.m., when the day-shift radio operator asked if he was still there.

Source: Records obtained from The Vindicator and Internal Affairs Division investigation findings