Emergency-call agency to pay family of shot professor

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — The family of a Canadian legal scholar gunned down in his Florida garage will be paid $40,000 US by an agency that handles 911 calls.

The dispatch agency for Tallahassee and Leon County agreed on Monday to pay the estate of Daniel Markel, who was born in Toronto.

The Consolidated Dispatch Agency conceded that “human and technical errors” delayed authorities from showing up promptly to his home after a neighbour of Markel’s called for help.

Markel, a law professor at Florida State University, was shot in July 2014. Authorities suggested the shooting was a murder-for-hire sparked by a divorce from his ex-wife, Wendi Adelson. Adelson and her family have denied any involvement and she has not been charged with any crime.

A 911 operator did not initially alert police that Markel had been shot. A review showed the 911 dispatcher categorized the call as someone being incapacitated. This wrong classification could have resulted in a delay in when police and paramedics arrived on the scene.

Under the settlement reached with Markel’s family an annuity will be set aside for his two boys.

Police say Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera travelled from south Florida to Tallahassee to kill Markel. Both are awaiting trial on murder charges.