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STANSBURY PARK — The Tooele County Sheriff's Office is under fire after a major failure during an incident with someone allegedly firing a gun in a neighborhood in September.
The sheriff's office admitted there was a communication breakdown that also put deputies' lives at risk.
The Tooele County Sheriff's Office said a 911 dispatcher failed to relay critical information to deputies.
"There was no moon, so it was really dark that morning," said Stephanie Walgamott.
On Sept. 9, about 6 a.m., Walgamott and Heidi Sloan were out for their daily walk when a stranger approached the women and threatened them.
"The guy had threatened to shoot us," Walgamott said.
"He said, 'Stop, I'll shoot, I'm serious, I'll shoot you," Sloan added.
The women were captured on video walking past multiple home surveillance cameras before dawn. The images show their headlamps shift as they run for cover first in front of a truck, then Sloan runs up the front stairs of a home. Moments later, shots are heard.
The women, at that point in separate locations, each called 911 for help.
"My first thought was, 'Well, if I'm going to die, I want someone to know what happened,'" Walgamott said.
But instead of help, the women said they were left in the dark. Recordings of the 911 calls reveal that both women expressed concerns for their safety. Walgamott tried to share the direction the suspect fled, but the dispatcher only responded that "units are on their way."
"Why didn't they ask us where the guy was headed; why didn't they ask us any details?" Walgamott said.
"I said, 'We're being shot at, please hurry,' like, and you can hear it in my voice, I'm terrified, and it's like, 'Yeah, we're aware,'" Sloan said.
The women waited at least 15 minutes for the first deputy to arrive. The deputy didn't know shots were fired or that the suspect was armed and on the loose.
The Tooele County Sheriff's Office admits to a breakdown in communication.
"The basic finding is just the lack of communication between my dispatch center and responding deputies and getting them updated as they are responding," said chief deputy Brian White of the Tooele County Sheriff's Office.
A couple spotted the man's truck stuck in a ditch and made the first call to 911 minutes before Sloan and Walgamott. That initial call was classified as an intoxicated person, but as more information came in, the dispatcher failed to reclassify the incident as an active shooter or to inform deputies.
"(Deputies') safety is at risk just as much as the public was because they weren't aware," White said.
The Tooele County Sheriff's Office said it's working to make things better. White said dispatchers underwent additional training this week.
"We've identified some training areas and needs, some policy updates and some procedures that we're working on all this week on things to ask and things that we can do better," White said. "I think we've addressed the issues and found out where the breakdown of communication occurred."
White also confirmed the dispatcher is still employed and is a veteran who made "a human error."
"I think when you do this job long enough, you sometimes get a little complacent. It doesn't mean he or she is a bad dispatcher, sometimes we just need some remedial training," White said. "This job is extremely difficult to find good dispatchers and so … I take responsibility for that, the training they need — it falls on me to provide to them."
As for Walgamott and Sloan's families, they're left reeling from the incident.
"I want to say this before I don't get a chance to say it. We are pro-law enforcement, absolutely," Walgamott said. "We're just saying we don't want this to happen to anybody else."
Man charged with aggravated assault
Benjamin Shaw Barlow, 42, was charged with two counts of aggravated assault, a third-degree felony, in connection with the incident.
According to a police booking affidavit filed in support of his arrest, Barlow told the deputy who found him that he was running from Tooele police "because they were after him and had raided his house that night."
When asked if he fired shots, Ward allegedly said he did so to "ward them off," the affidavit states.
"The gun was located in the area. Benjamin had extremely dilated pupils and was covered in heavy amounts of perspiration. He was also discussing delusions and was not in a normal mental state. He believed people were there to get him, and he was in the area in order to avoid 'them,'" according to the affidavit.
The deputy reported finding several bottles of medication "full of a variety of mixed pills not matching what was listed on the medication bottles."
Contributing: Ashley Imlay
