From: Platte County Prosecuting Attorney "Eric Zahnd"
Date: April 24, 2010
Subject: 911 call takers receive award during victims' rights breakfast
Two 911 call takers received awards on April 23 for their work in a homicide case. Kansas City Police Department Dispatcher Diana Sauer and MAST ambulance call taker John Chipchase received the Fifth Annual Sara Andrasek Memorial Award as part of the annual Victims’ Rights Breakfast hosted by the Platte County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd said, “Diana Sauer and John Chipchase represent the best of what thousands of 911 call takers do every day to help ordinary citizens whose lives have been turned upside down by crime. Although neither of them could save the victim’s life in this case, they did everything in their power to do so.”
Sauer and Chipchase answered 911 calls on March 16, 2007 after Webber Douglas Gilmer threatened to kill and later murdered Brian Harrell at an apartment building in Platte County. |
Award Presentation
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Sauer handled a call to police from Gilmer in which he repeatedly promised he would kill Brian Harrell. Sauer attempted to delay Gilmer and keep him on the phone. Despite Sauer’s attempt to keep him on the line, Gilmer ultimately hung up. 38 seconds later, Gilmer shot Harrell three times in the chest while Harrell was calling 911 for assistance.
Chipchase then handled a 911 call in which Harrell’s wife desperately attempted to give first aid to Harrell. For nearly four minutes until police and paramedics arrived, Chipchase calmly instructed Harrell’s distraught wife on how to assist her husband.
Harrell died at the scene. An autopsy revealed that he had been shot through the heart.
A Platte County jury convicted Gilmer of first degree murder in October 2008, and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Zahnd said, “Listening to those 911 calls is truly heartbreaking. Ms. Sauer and Mr. Chipchase calmly and persistently tried in vain to save a man from being killed. All of us should be thankful for them and countless others who work each day to make the world a safer place for all of us.”
The Sara Andrasek Memorial Award is given each year in the memory of the Platte County woman who was raped and murdered in 2001 while pregnant with her first child. Zahnd’s office and the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department were in the final stages of preparing a death penalty case against Wayne Dumond when Dumond died while in custody.
Previous recipients of the award include the team that investigated Andrasek’s murder, a detective who investigated a large burglary ring, a family who adopted a girl who had suffered sexual abuse, and a vehicle accident reconstruction expert.
Kris Wade, Executive Director of the Justice Project, also spoke at the breakfast and shared her story as a survivor of domestic violence, sexual assault and sexual exploitation.
About 80 people attended the free breakfast, which was held at the First Baptist Church of Platte City.
Eric G. Zahnd
Platte County Prosecuting Attorney
415 Third Street
Suite 60
Platte City, Missouri 64079
(816) 858-3476
(816) 858-3472 (fax)
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