MEMPHIS, Tenn. (CN) - It took police 9 days to find the body of former NBA player Lorenzen Wright, who was shot dead a year ago, because 911 dispatchers ignored his call for help, and because the City of Germantown had turned off cops' access to an Internet program that could have pinpointed the origin of Wright's call, because cops had been abusing their Internet access, Wright's family says in two federal complaints.
Wright's body was found outside Germantown on July 28, 2010, riddled with gunshots. His body weighed a mere 57 lbs. after exposure to heat, rain and wild animals, his family says.
In separate federal complaints, both filed this week, Wright's ex-wife and parents tell similar, though slightly different accounts of what happened.
According to his parents, Wright called a 911 dispatcher in Germantown on the morning he was shot.
His parents say, "the unknown 911 dispatcher for the City of Germantown who received the call from Lorenzen Wright's cell phone heard a garbled expletive and as many as 10 gunshots."
Wright's parents say the dispatcher tried to call back but when no one answered, did nothing more.
"Based upon information and belief, the unknown 911 call dispatcher for the City of Germantown did not inform a supervisor of this call until eight (8) days had passed on or about July, 27, 2010," his parents say.
Wright's ex-wife, Sherra Robinson Wright, sued 911 dispatchers Claudia Kelney-Woods and Chris Rowlson and their supervisor Lt. Donald Taylor, claiming Taylor knew about the call but decided not to investigate or pass on the information.
She says Wright was supposed to return to her home the night of July 18, 2010 to spend time with his six children, but never showed.
He called 911 in the early morning of July 19, 2010.
"Upon information and belief, during the aforementioned emergency 911 call, the dispatchers heard the voice of an unidentified African-American male voice uttering an expletive and at least ten to twelve audible gunshots," according to his ex-wife's complaint.
Rowlson allegedly hung up the phone to handle the police radio and Kenley-Woods tried twice to call Wright's cell phone back. Lt. Taylor asked Kenley-Woods about the situation, according to Wright's ex-wife.
"Dispatcher Kenley-Woods advised Lt. Taylor that she did not see the caller's location on the ANI/ALI screen (which is the computer software used to locate the origin of 911 emergency phone calls). However, they were able to obtain the latitude and longitude of the origin of the emergency 911 call from said system," according to the complaint. [Parentheses in complaint.]
The complaint continues: "Upon information and belief, the Germantown Police Department Dispatch Center did not have Internet access at the employee's console on the morning of July 19, 2010. The Germantown Police Department Dispatch Center had previously had Internet access at the employee's consoles. However, the Germantown Police Department blocked employee's access to the Internet at the Dispatch Center as a result of the misuse and abuse of said resource by certain employees at the Dispatch Center.
"Upon information and belief, Lt. Donald Taylor attempted to plot the latitude and longitude pertaining to the call that appeared on the ANI/ALI screen, using an iPhone application on his iPhone cellular phone upon realizing that Dispatcher Kenley-Woods did not have access to the Internet to accomplish said task.
