Victim of Mob Attack Criticizes 911 Response : Oxnard: Police fail to show up after the woman’s mother calls them. An official blames a communication error.
An Oxnard woman who was beaten by a drunken mob of teen-age girls said Thursday that she plans to complain to the police chief and may sue the city over the Oxnard Police Department’s failure to respond to her mother’s 911 call.
Olivia Rivas, a 31-year-old single mother of three, said she was getting out of her car about 8 p.m. Sunday in front of her north Oxnard apartment when she was hit in the head by a wine bottle and jumped by about a dozen girls.
“I thought I was dead,†said Rivas, whose legs are scarred and bloody and whose face is still blue-green and swollen. “The first thing I thought was, ‘Oh God, they’re going to kill me.’ â€
Her mother, Sarah Garcia, looked on in horror as the beating continued for 30 seconds or a minute. Rivas’ father, Angel, and a group of neighbors came to her rescue and chased the teen-agers away.
“Who knows how it would’ve ended up if they hadn’t come,†Rivas said.
Garcia then called 911 and waited for police to arrive. Rivas went to her apartment in the 1200 block of North G Street to wash the blood away and went back outside to wait for officers. They never showed up that night.
In fact, Rivas said, the police didn’t come until Wednesday to take a report.
“They are supposed to be there to protect me, but where were they when I needed them?†Rivas said. “They violated my rights.â€
Oxnard Police Lt. Stan Myers said the lack of police response was a breakdown in communication. He said the teen-age girls had been partying Sunday afternoon at nearby Eastwood Memorial Park at Ivywood Drive and North F Street, and police dispatchers received three 911 calls about the same time.
The first was to report a bottle thrown at a house near Ivywood. The next two calls were about the beating.
Myers said a review of communication tapes revealed that dispatchers thought all three calls were about the bottle-throwing incident.
“The officers were never directed to the apartment complex by dispatch,†Myers said. “We’ve reviewed our policies and have tried to reinforce with our people who are taking calls that we can’t assume anything.â€
Neighbor Millard Williams said a police cruiser pulled up alongside the apartment building about 15 or 20 minutes after the beating, but by then the mob had piled into a white pickup truck and fled. Williams said he flagged down the officer and told him which way the girls had headed.
“I thought the officer would come back, but he never did,†Williams said.
Rivas, who is recuperating from abdominal surgery, said she didn’t know the girls who attacked her and had never seen them in the neighborhood before. She said she did nothing to provoke the incident.
Sarah Garcia said she could only look on, stunned and frightened, from her second-story balcony.
“What is a mother to think?†she asked. “To stand there and watch your daughter get beaten and then for the police not to show up. They are not going to get away with this.â€
Myers said the Police Department has completed its crime report and plans to pursue charges of assault with a deadly weapon if anyone is arrested.
Myers said the case is unusual because it involves a roving gang of girls.
“They have the potential of being just as violent as the males,†Myers said. “This kind of thing is becoming more and more common, which is disturbing.â€
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