Emergency service communications released Thursday in response to a Dec. 12 incident at the Hope Mills Police Department have revealed more details about the circumstances surrounding what prompted a probe from the State Bureau of Investigation.
The town of Hope Mills announced last week that the SBI had been called in after the incident and that Major Bradley Rountree had been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation. The town declined to provide further details. The Hope Mills Board of Commissioners was informed of the incident on Dec. 18 during a closed session, Commissioner Bryan Marley and Mayor Jessie Bellflowers previously told CityView.
The recordings consist of two 911 calls, a 48-second call to the county’s dispatch center for fire and EMS and an electronic log noting emergency services’ response to the incident.
In the first 911 call, a woman who identifies herself as a Hope Mills police officer asks to be transferred to the Hope Mills dispatcher, then requests emergency services be sent to the police department.
“We don’t really know what’s going on yet,” she says.
When the dispatcher asks if the woman wants firefighters to respond, she replies that she believes they already have firefighters inside.
In a second 911 call, another woman informs the dispatcher that an ambulance has responded to the police department.
When the dispatcher tells her that firefighters and EMS are on the way, the woman says, “I think one of the majors has passed — they found him passed out in the bathroom, and they don’t know what’s going on with him.”
In a third 911 call, a man asks the dispatcher for Cumberland County fire departments to send EMS to the Hope Mills fire station.
“Can you start me an ambulance emergency traffic to the fire station reference a 40-year-old male, officer ALOC [altered level of consciousness] who is passed out?” he says.
The man then instructs the dispatcher to send the ambulance to the police department side of the town hall.
According to the electronic log of the event, EMS were first requested at 4:32 p.m., with an additional call from “the desk” requesting the fire department respond to the second floor of the police department coming in at 4:33 p.m. A call at 4:35 p.m. advised a man had passed out, the log shows. Medics were on the scene for just under an hour, according to the log.
Lexi Solomon can be reached at lsolomon@cityviewnc.com or 910-423-6500.
