Charleston Co. woman concerned after 911 call wait times

CHARLESTON CO., S.C. (WCBD) – One Charleston County woman said she is concerned after having to wait when she called 911.  

Mary Ann Carrillo said she dialed 911 twice on Tuesday because a suspicious man approached her husband at their North Charleston apartment, and they felt unsafe. According to Carrillo, the phone rang 15-20 times each call before she hung up.

According to Charleston County officials, Carrillo’s first call rang for 46 seconds before it was disconnected. Her second call rang for 141 seconds. After she hung up again, Carrillo received a text that said:

“This is from the 9-1-1 Operator. What is the address/location of your emergency?”

Carrillo was able to get in touch with someone from the non-emergency line after that.

According to Charleston County officials, they automatically redialed Carrillo multiple times after she disconnected the calls, but they didn’t go through. At one point, officials said her call was re-routed back into the queue and the operator took the call, no one was on the line.

Carrillo said the situation should’ve been handled differently.

“I feel like 911 should have answered the phone because this was an emergency. Now anything could’ve happened. I believe that’s very uncalled for, for them to not answer it when it’s a 911 emergency,” said Carrillo.

County officials advise callers not to hang up the phone when dialing 911.