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Response Time Questioned In Port Costa Mugging

Posted: 10:29 pm PST November 13, 2009Updated: 1:07 am PST November 14, 2009

A mugging victim is questioning the response time by the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department, saying it took deputies 45 minutes to show up after calling 9-1-1.

The woman said the attack happened in a parking near a bar and hotel in Port Costa early Sunday morning. She said she went a birthday party at the Warehouse Cafe and when she went to her car to leave, two teenaged girls confronted her.

"They just started punching me in the face, downward swings, really hard into my face," said the victim. "I fell to the ground. They kicked me in the face. They kicked me in the head."

The victim said the girls left after taking purse but then returned with three young men.

"I was just like get away from me, get away from, just screaming. So sacred, thinking that the next step after this, maybe their girlfriends made a mistake and now I'm going to be killed," the victim told KTVU.

The screams attracted the attention of a woman walking her dogs. The attackers fled while the woman went inside the bar and alerted the bartender who called 9-1-1.

A spokesman for the Contra Costa County Sheriff's department said the 911 log showed deputies took about 45 minutes to respond because the first unit was dispatched to another call. A unit that was in El Sobrante ended up taking the call.

"Port Costa is in a fairly remote location. Our units were busy and they were coming from a distance," said Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department spokesman Jimmy Lee. "In addition to that over the last few years, we have budget cuts that have significantly reduced our patrols."

The Sheriff's Department adds getting into Port Costa is difficult because of the roads, adding to the response time.

The victim has a different view. "It's not okay. If the fire department and the ambulance can get there in ten minutes, it shouldn't take them. It took them about an hour and a half."

The Contra Costa County Sheriff's department has apologized and said it's doing the best it can with the resources it has.

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