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Pennie Bickerstaff knew that with every moment the paramedics did not arrive, her 22-year-old son Daniel's life was withering away. Violently ill from stage IV colon cancer, Daniel was aspirating blood he had vomited and was in need of urgent medical attention.
"When your child looks at you with fear in (his) eyes and says, 'Tell 'em to hurry, Mama,' that's enough to kill you," she said.
It was at that time, according to Bickerstaff, that a cacophony of gunfire erupted in a trailer park community across the street. It was overwhelming enough to make the two paramedics responding to the 911 call fear for their own safety and pull over.
"It just scared us, both of us," said ambulance driver T.C. Williams. "We just didn't know what they were shooting at."
Williams says his partner immediately radioed 911 dispatch to report the gunfire, but the operator told them both to ignore it because it was "a normal occurrence" on weekends. Surprised by this response, Williams says his partner radioed dispatch once more, advising the operator that there were "multiple gunshots." Again, however, the operator urged them to ignore it.
"It was stunning to hear (the gunfire) right there with all those houses around, and to have 911 saying that's normal!" Williams said.
Indeed, the explosion of gunfire in the trailer park off Hoods Cross Rd. in Oneonta is a disturbingly familiar occurrence to residents living nearby. Bickerstaff and others say the raucous happens almost every weekend, usually during the late night hours, along with loud music and carousing. In fact, during an apparent celebration last New Year's Eve, a stray bullet pierced the roof of a 12-year-old boy's bedroom and landed on his mattress within inches of his head.
Bickerstaff says she's brought the matter to the attention of the Blount County Sheriff, the Blount County District Attorney and the Blount County Commission, as well as Oneonta Police, but nothing has been done to stop it.
"Where is law enforcement? Why aren't they on this road? Whey aren't they patrolling more when they know what is going on here in our neighborhood? It's like everybody has turned a deaf ear."
By the time the ambulance arrived to the Bickerstaff's' home on the night of May 17, paramedics had already lost five precious minutes of response time as a result of the gunfire. All the while, Bickerstaff says, her son's blood oxygen level was dropping precipitously. Although Daniel made it to the hospital alive, he died seven hours later. Bickerstaff admits that the outcome probably would have been the same that night even without the ambulance delay, but she says her son and the rest of her family could have been spared the additional five minutes of anguish they were forced to endure.
"If my son had gotten some immediate attention, (Daniel) would not have to suffer the way he did," she said.
According to Blount County Commissioner Tom Ryan, the matter is "complicated" and "impossible to explain in five minutes."
"You can't just go in there and pick out someone and say, 'We think you were shooting,'" Ryan said. "We've got to see them doing it."
Ryan adds that the Blount County Sheriff's Department, whose jurisdiction includes Bickerstaff's neighborhood, is stifled by low funding from the state and has only four deputies per shift to cover the entire county. To complicate matters, Sheriff Danny Morton is under investigation by the Alabama Bureau of Investigation for sexual misconduct.
"The county is really making an effort to fix it," Ryan said. "It's just not that simple."
For Pennie Bickerstaff and her family, one thing is simple:
"We want help when we call 911. We want somebody to come help us, and for anybody else to have to go through this, it would be unmentionable," she said. "There is no reason why anybody should have to live with this."
Thanks,
Pennie Bickerstaff
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