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Ambulance took 19 minutes to reach fatally shot professor

The dispatcher apparently didn’t understand that the victim had a gunshot wound

By Matt Gutman
ABC News

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — It took paramedics 19 minutes to arrive at the home of a Florida State University professor shot in his garage after a neighbor called 911 – with the dispatcher’s confusion contributing to the delay and one EMS unit replaced by another, authorities said.

Dan Markel, 41, was shot as he drove his car into his garage on July 18. The killer fired a single bullet through the driver’s window, striking him just beneath the jawline, sources told ABC News.

A neighbor called 911, noting that he happened upon Markel’s car because he’d been worried about a recent string of break-ins. The neighbor said he found Markel sitting in the driver’s seat of his car, his head covered in blood. Markel was still alive, the man told a dispatcher. But he wasn’t responsive.

Full story: Fatally shot FSU professor waited 19 minutes for ambulance to arrive