Local News

911 Calls Reveal Delay In SF Tiger Attack Response

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― One of the men mauled in a Christmas Day tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo desperately pleaded for help from a 911 dispatcher and begged to know why it was taking so long to get it, according to a recording of the call released Tuesday.

The dispatcher told the young man that paramedics could not come to his aid until they could be sure they weren't in danger of being attacked themselves, according to the recording.

"It's a matter of life and death!" the young man shouts minutes into the call.

"I understand that, but at the same time we have to make sure the paramedics don't get chewed out, because if the paramedics get hurt then nobody's going to help you," the dispatcher replies.

Seconds later, the man shouts, "My brother's about to die out here!"

The 911 call came from either Paul or Kulbir Dhaliwal, the brothers who were attacked along with their friend Carlos Sousa Jr. outside the tiger's enclosure on Dec. 25. Sousa, 17, was killed, and the Dhaliwals, ages 19 and 23, were severely injured.

Several sections of the recorded call were blanked over in the version made public, and it wasn't immediately clear which of the brothers dialed 911 on a cell phone. Based on the synopsis of the attacks made public by police, it was likely the older one, Kulbir Dhaliwal, who was the last of the three victims mauled by the tiger.

Zoo officials say the Siberian tiger climbed or jumped over the wall surrounding its pen. They've acknowledged the wall was 4 feet shorter than the recommended minimum.

The recordings reveal intense fear and frustration by the young man, as zoo officials and emergency responders scrambled to understand what was happening.

Less than 60 seconds into the nearly seven-minute recording of the conversation between the dispatcher and the young man, the escaped tiger had already killed Sousa, and the brothers were frantically looking for help.

According to the recording, the 911 dispatcher tells the man to calm down before the frustrated caller asks, "Can you fly a helicopter out here? Because I don't see a (expletive) ambulance."

A separate 911 call placed by a zoo employee who was communicating simultaneously with colleagues on a walky-talky also was recorded. A tape of that conversation showed that zoo employees initially expressed disbelief that a big cat could have escaped.

The unidentified male zoo employee called 911 at 5:05 p.m. to relay a report from a female employee who encountered the frantic brothers outside a snack bar.

The 911 call captured the conversation between the two employees.

"I don't know if they are on drugs or not," the woman is overheard speaking on his two-way radio. "They are screaming about an animal that has attacked them and there isn't an animal out. He is talking about a third person, but I don't see a third person."

The man then tries to relay her remarks, when the female employee interjects: "He is saying he got attacked by a lion."

The man is heard on the 911 call, saying, "That is virtually impossible. ... I can't imagine how he could have possibly gotten attacked by a lion. He would have had to have gotten in. I just can't see it."

"I think this guy is on something. He is really agitated," the woman says.

"They don't know if he got attacked by a lion. They are both very agitated, and they might be on drugs," the man tells the dispatcher.

At 5:10 p.m.—five minutes after the first 911 call was made— word reaches the male employee that an animal was loose. He starts telling other visitors that they must leave the grounds immediately.

"We have a Code One. They say they have a tiger out," he told the dispatcher.

The extent of Sousa's injuries became known at 5:15 p.m., when either a paramedic or another zoo employee is heard over the radio reporting a fatality. "This person needs help now," he said.

A recording of police dispatch traffic on the night of the attacks also was released Tuesday, with the chilling moment when an officer spots the tiger mauling one of the brothers.

"At the cafe, we have the tiger!" an officer shouts into his radio just after 5:27 p.m. "We have the tiger attacking the victim!"

Less than a minute later, another call comes over the radio saying the animal was down.

"We have the cat. We shot the cat," an officer says. "The victim is being attended to."

Michael Cardoza, a personal injury lawyer hired by Carlos Sousa's parents, said Tuesday that his clients had not yet listened to the recordings.

Cardoza said he was struck by how cogent the brother who made the 911 call sounded, despite his obvious terror and the initial incredulity of zoo employees.

"That is tantamount to me going up to a cop saying, 'There is a guy with a gun behind our building and he just shot somebody,' and the cop saying, 'Are you on drugs?"' Cardoza said. "Why don't you go check it out first, and then question the reliability of the people who are reporting it, especially when one of them is standing there bleeding?"

But zoo spokesman Sam Singer said the newly released tapes only reinforced the zoo director's position that staff "acted heroically in guiding emergency responders to assist the two brothers, as well as to the body of Carlos Sousa Jr."

Meanwhile, police obtained a search warrant Tuesday to examine the cell phones and car belonging to the Dhaliwal brothers for its ongoing criminal investigation, said spokeman Sgt. Neville Gittens. The items have been the focus of both police and city officials, who believe they could contain evidence that the victims provoked the tiger in the moments leading to the attack.

Mark Geragos, the attorney representing the brothers, has insisted they did not taunt the animal. He did not immediately return a call for comment late Tuesday.

A hearing on whether the city attorney's office may examine the items in a separate civil case was scheduled for Wednesday.

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