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Houston homeowner who held peeping Tom at gunpoint questioning why police took over 30 minutes to respond
FOX 26 Reporter Randy Wallace spoke with the homeowner about the situation and wants to know why it took police so long to come to his home after holding a peeping Tom at gunpoint.
HOUSTON - You can see a shirtless tattooed man on surveillance video cameras that surround Ike Umar’s home in the Galleria area. It was around 3 a.m. Umar says when his wife said she heard someone outside.
"I open the curtain right next to my daughters bed and I see a face he’s trying to look inside," Umar said.
Umar says he grabbed a gun and held the man at gunpoint while his wife made the first call to 911.
"He said my gang is trying to kill me, I’m just trying to hide here," said Umar. "Now I’m confused is this guy an intruder or is this a victim trying to save his life? I don’t know."
What Umar says he does know, it took too long for the Houston Police Department to arrive. More than 30 minutes passed before the cops showed up.
"Then I came up with the idea, maybe I should call and tell them this guy is hurt, so they’ll send an ambulance," he said. "So somebody shows up."
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Umar says a paramedic arrived before police, but she wouldn’t go into the backyard until the cops arrived.
Umar and his wife made several calls to 911.
"I’m frustrated at that moment, I said, ‘you guys are so dumb and stupid and I just hung up,’" he said.
In a statement, HPD says they are looking into the incident based on how the initial call was coded by dispatch based on info the call taker received.
It was initially coded by a Code 3, then upgraded to a higher priority.
"A woman calls and says there’s a suspicious male looking inside my window, how’s that a priority 3?" Umar asked.
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As for the shirtless man, he was taken to a hospital for a mental evaluation.