D.C. Police say they've completed a preliminary investigation into a woman's claims that it took more than an hour to get help after a hit-and-run accident - and they found the victim initially gave an incorrect location for the event.
Last week, Aimee Custis was walking to Union Station on Tuesday when she was hit by an SUV while in a cross walk. The driver, who Custis said appeared to be texting, yelled he was sorry and then left the scene.
Custis told News4's Darcy Spencer that she called 911 three times. Finally, 80 minutes after her first call, a Capitol Police officer arrived on the scene and started taking a report. It was another 20 minutes, an hour and 40 minutes after her original call, that the D.C. police officer dispatched to the scene finally arrived.
“When I turned down an ambulance I didn’t expect to be the top priority,” Custis told Spencer. “But it was a hit and run and I was a little surprised that it took three calls and over an hour.”
Metropolitan Police said Monday that they had received three calls regarding the incident "and responded to each in a timely manner."
However, on the first two occasions, "an incorrect location was provided by the caller," said spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump. "MPD has contacted the victim of this hit and run and is addressing her concerns."
Custis told Spencer Monday that it was possible she gave the wrong location during the first call. "I was in shock at the time," she said.
She said the MPD had told her she gave the correct location in the second call, but that emergency personnel couldn't find her.
But she added that she wasn't as concerned about the issue of response time as she was about using the incident to spread a message: cars need to watch for pedestrians. “D.C. is a great city for walking and biking, but we still have a long way to go," she said.
