NEW ORLEANS — The family of a young woman killed in New Orleans this year says they've filed an official complaint against the police department. The family says officers took more than 10 hours to respond to a 911 call Asia Davis made weeks before her murder. She was reporting her former boyfriend attacked her. He would later take her life.
WWLTV with our partners at Nola.com got the recordings of the call Asia Davis made to 911 on Apr. 6; it goes dispatch asking, "911 what's the address of your emergency?" Asia said, "Can I have someone 6841 Mayo Blvd?"
Asia goes on to say, "He just took my whole phone ma'am." Dispatch says, "Ok, listen what is your relationship? Who is he?" To which Asia said, "That was my boyfriend, he was going crazy. Please send somebody here." Dispatch asks, "Was ya'll fighting or anything?" Asia said, "I didn't touch him, he hit me."
Our partners at Nola.com shared with us the dispatch records, Asia called 911 at 6:12 p.m. on the 6th and called 911 back several times, the lack of response angered the young woman. One time she called back and said, "My name is Asia, I have been calling, don't ask me my name, you got my number."
She called back again and said, "Ma'am is somebody coming, I have been reported this two hours ago."
NOPD didn't arrive till 5:00 a.m. the next day. Asia also called 911 on Apr. 18, according to police records and her mom's complaint - both times her calls were downgraded and in both occasions, it took NOPD more than 10 hours to respond, and both calls were marked "gone on arrival." She was killed on May 10 .
Her mom, Kenya Davis wants answers. Ms. Davis told WWLTV, "You call the police over and over and the police never come. It tears me up a lot of days."
She went on to say, "How you going to downgrade them calls like that when you hear stress in a woman's voice?"
It also says the officer who arrived "waits at Asia Davis' residence for approximately five minutes before leaving." Kenya believes if NOPD treated Asia's calls as an emergency, she'd still be alive today.
Ms. Davis said, "Had a man shoot her point blank in the face, where they couldn't even put her face back together to have an open casket."
The Davis family filed this complaint because they want to see change across the city of New Orleans, they want to make sure no other young woman dies at the hands of their partner or former partner and they want to make sure any domestic violence call to 911 is taken seriously and never downgraded.
"Exactly what am I supposed to tell my grandchild as she grows up and gets older about her mother being murdered and what did we do to make a change?" said Ms. Davis who is now raising her six-year-old grandchild, Asia's daughter.
Mayor Cantrell said she'd apologize to families for the remarks she made back in May. Five months later, Kenya says she's still waiting to hear the Mayor say "I'm sorry".
Henry Talley Jr. pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder of Asia Davis.
WWLTV reached out to the city and NOPD and are still waiting for a response.