When a 911 dispatcher received a call from Tennessee prison officials requesting help after Christa Pike survived her execution, they assumed someone was "prank calling."
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Officials Called 911 After Christa Pike Survived Her Execution
Pike was set to be executed on Sep. 30. However, the 50-year-old death row inmate survived two lethal injections of pentobarbital. She is the first death row inmate ever to do it.
Pike and her boyfriend at the time, Tadaryll Shipp, were found guilty of killing 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995. Slemmer, Shipp, and Pike were all classmates at the Knoxville Job Corps.
As the New York Post reports, newly released dispatch audio paints a portrait of confusion in the moments after the failed execution.
The first 911 call came in around 8:40 p.m. This was nearly an hour after Pike received her first dose. The caller said the inmate was given "10 grams of pentobarbital" as part of an execution. They needed an ambulance because Pike was "not yet deceased."
Dispatch Thought the Call Was a Prank
The caller couldn't provide a verification code to confirm the request was genuine. Nearly 10 minutes later, the dispatcher called the Tennessee Department of Correction Central Control to verify the call.
"We are trying to find out if that is an actual thing that is happening and we need to send an ambulance," or "if this is someone that is basically prank-calling or like swatting us," she said.
At 9:03 p.m., the dispatcher said she "has been informed it is a false call" and "there is no medical assistance needed at Riverbend Prison."
A few minutes later, a responder said that someone at the prison's gate said the emergency was real.
"Somebody is outside the gate at the prison telling us that it's real and demanding us to go in. They say they are some sort of state official. I need somebody to get out to the gate and talk to those people," the responder said.
Call logs show it took prison officials over 30 minutes to confirm the call for help was legitimate.
Pike woke up from her attempted execution six days later. She was discharged from the hospital on Saturday and, according to her lawyers, is receiving medical care in prison.
