When Seconds Counted, St. Louis Police Were Hours Away

A St. Louis woman was held at gunpoint and assaulted in her apartment for several hours this past weekend, and though a neighbor heard her cries for help and called 911, police didn't respond until after the victim was able to get to a phone hours later. 

25-year-old Miles Faris is facing charges of first-degree kidnapping, second- and third-degree domestic assault, unlawful use of a weapon, and multiple drug charges, but police have not been able to take him into custody because he fled the apartment before officers arrived on scene. 

In court documents, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department acknowledged there was a call reporting a woman screaming in the apartment where the incident happened, but "due to a high level of calls that night, police were not able to respond to that call."

The victim said he then told the woman he would kill her, her family and her friends, and told her to Facetime her mother to say goodbye. He chambered a round and held the gun to her head, reiterating that he was going to kill her, police said.

The victim recorded some of the incident on her phone, including video that showed Faris pointing the gun at her multiple times while appearing "heavily intoxicated." Faris also said he wanted to bash the woman's skull in, and that if she didn't wake up in the morning, he would be the No. 1 suspect, according to charging documents.

According to a police spokesperson, police officers in the area had 27 separate calls for service between 5 and 8 p.m. last Saturday, with one of them involving shots fired. The spokesman told KSDK-TV that the original 911 call from the neighbor didn't include any information about weapons being involved or a potentially life-threatening situation taking place, so it was essentially put on the back burner in favor of calls that were deemed more important. 

The victim, who apparently was in a relationship with Faris, claims that he had previously assaulted her in early November as well, choking her to the point that she lost her voice for a week. Last weekend's assault allegedly happened after she confronted Faris about his drug use, which led to him reportedly pulling a gun on her, pistol-whipping her several times, and holding her at gunpoint inside the apartment. 

This woman's plight underscores the fact that police can't be everywhere at once, and there's no guarantee that they'll arrive in time to stop a violent home invasion, carjacking, or a domestic assault. The St. Louis police spokesman told KSDK that "there is nothing more frustrating or heartbreaking than what we are seeing and what we heard," adding "I can tell you that there is not a police officer in this building that would not run into that apartment — knowing what we know today — to save her."

I believe him, and I'm sure that police prioritized the 911 call the best they could given the information they had and the circumstances of the other calls for service at the time. But that doesn't change the fact that when seconds counted police were hours away, and this incident is a reminder that we are our own first responders, and our personal safety is ultimately our own responsibility. 

Editor’s Note: Self-defense is a human right, and our Second Amendment rights go hand-in-hand with it. 

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