She called 911 over her husband’s frantic texts. No one helped, she said.

Colorado Springs police did not respond to 911 hostage report, wife says - The Washington Post

Talija Campbell dialed 911 last week after she received panicked text messages from her husband.

“Send please!” his next text said.

Campbell told the emergency dispatcher that she believed her husband was being held hostage in Colorado Springs and needed someone to check on him. Fearing help might not reach him in time, Campbell said she decided to drive to her husband’s location.

What she found when she got to the parking lot on June 2 is an image she “can never get rid of,” Campbell said at a news conference on Thursday.

Her husband was slumped over in his car and had no pulse. He’d suffered a fatal gunshot wound.

There were no first responders, even though she’d called 911 about an hour earlier, she said.

Harry Daniels, an attorney representing Campbell, said the family wants answers from the Colorado Springs Police Department about why help wasn’t immediately sent to the scene.

“No excuses here can be fitting or justified for why they didn’t do their job that day,” Daniels told The Post.

The Colorado Springs Police Department is investigating Qualin Campbell’s death as a homicide, but has provided few details on the incident.

The second man was also found deceased, and his death is being investigated as a suicide, according to police. He was identified by police this week as 44-year-old David Karels of Colorado Springs.

In a statement to The Washington Post on Thursday, Colorado Springs police called Campbell’s death a “tragedy,” expressing condolences to his family and adding that their “top priority is to provide them with answers.”

During the news conference Thursday, Daniels said Campbell had just been trying to “do his job, working, provide for his family,” adding that authorities had failed to assist him when he was in danger.

Qualin Campbell, a 31-year-old father of two daughters, had been working on Friday, June 2, when he texted his wife pleading for help. He was employed at a mobile technology company and often drove to facilities to fix equipment.

Alarmed after receiving the texts around 1 p.m., Talija Campbell called 911 and spoke to a dispatcher, detailing the messages she’d received and giving the exact location her husband had sent.

But she didn’t feel there was a “sense of urgency,” she said on Thursday, adding that it “didn’t sit right” with her.

As her worry increased by the minute, Campbell made the drive herself and found her husband’s car in a parking lot about an hour after she called 911.

She jumped out to check on him. She saw through the window that he was slumped over and bleeding.

Campbell fell to her knees and started to scream, she recalled at the news conference.

At first, she was scared to open the door. The man in the photo her husband had sent was also still in the car, she said, adding that she’d seen a gun. But she wanted to know if her husband was alive.

Campbell opened the door and placed her fingers first on his neck, then on his wrist. She couldn’t find a pulse.

Emergency personnel still had not arrived. The parking lot was about one mile from the Colorado Springs Police headquarters.

“It was me that had to try to perform CPR on my husband in a pool of blood,” Campbell said.

Police were sent to the scene around 2 p.m. “to investigate a shooting,” according to a Wednesday news release. When the officers arrived, they found that “bystanders attempted life-saving efforts” on Qualin Campbell, according to the release.

Daniels, the attorney, said the family might never know exactly what happened. As of Thursday evening, they had not received a copy of 911 call records. The family is now exploring whether to take legal action, he said.

“I know [police] didn’t show up, that they were called,” Daniels said. “That’s not a theory. That’s a fact.”

Remembering her husband on Thursday, Campbell said those who knew him would say he was a “gentle giant.” The couple, who were married for seven years, lived a quiet life together with their children, who are 4 and 14.

Qualin Campbell was always there for his family, his wife said.

“He’s just the protector,” Talija Campbell said. “And we no longer have that.”