COPS SHRuG OFF 911 CALL
THE NYPD HAS suspended two cops for failing to respond to a harrowing 911 call from a Brooklyn mother’s home an hour before she was found dead, police said Thursday.
“He’s going to kill me,” victim Tonie Wells, 22, could be heard screaming in the background, sources said.
The officers — identified as Wing Hong Lau and Wael Jaber — responded to the scene, but apparently never got out of their car outside Wells’ Crown Heights home .
“It’s messed up,” said family friend Victor Brown, 21. “If they would have done something ahead of time, this wouldn’t have happened.”
Sources said a neighbor called 911 about 9 a.m. Wednesday after they heard Wells screaming, “He’s going to kill me!” about her husband Barry Wells, 29.
Lau and Jaber responded a short time later but never made it to the door on a day that saw temperatures peak in the lower 20s, sources said.“In the end, they never checked out the situation, but that’s not to say they would have been able to save her,” a police source said. “They decided to roll the dice, and this is what happened.”
Cops were once again called to the couple’s Sterling Place home about one hour later, after neighbors heard Wells’ 2-yearold daughter screaming inside.
Responding officers found Wells at the bottom of a basement staircase with bruises around her neck. She appeared to have been strangled, cops said. The city medical examiner will determine the exact cause of death.
“She was just with us for the holidays,” Wells’ aunt Katherine Rivera, 46, said Thursday, chocking back sobs. “We’re in pain.”
Rivera said the family is prepared to speak up about domestic violence in the hope of sparing others the fate of her niece.
“If what my niece went through can shine light on someone else’s (struggle) to get someone else to run, to save a life — if my niece’s memory can do that, then we will do what we can do to help someone else,” Rivera said. “Her life meant something, it had purpose.”
Police Commissioner James O’Neill lamented the actions of Lau, 47, and Jaber, 42, both 11-year veterans.
“I always speak to how proud I am of our officers, but unfortunately when we don’t live up to that standard we have to fully investigate,” O’Neill said.
Internal Affairs is investigating the incident.
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said the initial police response was unacceptable.
“It cannot be tolerated or accepted that the officers responding to the incident did not exit the vehicle,” he said.
Barry Wells, who wed the victim in April, was apprehended about 6 p.m. Wednesday with the help of the New Rochelle Police Department.
The suicidal husband was hospitalized shortly afterward.
“We took him to Montefiore Hospital because he had mentioned that he had tried to commit suicide,” Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce. “He had not.”
Barry Wells was later taken to the 77th Precinct stationhouse for questioning, but he exhibited more troubling behavior. He was taken from the stationhouse to Kings County Hospital about 1:30 p.m. Thursday for a psychiatric evaluation, sources said.
No charges were filed by Thursday afternoon. “We are waiting for the results of the autopsy,” Boyce said.
The suspect was arrested Sept. 21 on a second-degree strangulation charge stemming from a July assault on Wells at her mother’s Manhattan home.
Barry Wells was released after posting $5,000 bond and issued a temporary order of protection.
Police responded to the home for a second domestic violence incident involving the couple in September — but there were no arrests, police said.
“Mr. Wells did make statements at the problems they had,” Boyce said. “They had an onagain, off-again living arrangement.”
Wells’ daughter is currently being cared for by family members.
Wells was recently pregnant, but suffered a miscarriage after a domestic quarrel, a cousin told the Daily News. A police source said Wells lost her baby last month.
Her devastated family members were struggling to come to grips with the sudden loss. “All we know is that she’s gone,”her aunt said.