HOUSTON – Two homeowners in a gated Montrose community said they’re still having sleepless nights after a bleeding stranger violently knocked on their doors early Sunday morning.
The homeowners said what they found even more shocking was the police response time.
Michael Hoctor’s home surveillance camera captured an unknown, bloodied man with a stack of cash, banging on his front door Sunday around 2:45 a.m.
The man had just left Deborah Wynn’s home, Hoctor’s neighbor on Cortlandt Place, after breaking their glass door where he likely cut his hand.
“There was a man standing at our front door and he kept ringing the bell and he started knocking, and when he couldn’t get any response, he started banging on the glass upper portions of our door and he kept banging so hard that he broke the glass,” Wynn said.
Wynn said she called 911 around 2:40 a.m. and was initially placed on hold.
Hoctor said he also called 911 and was put on hold before a dispatcher sent the Houston Fire Department to his gated community.
“I was with 911 about one minute,” Hoctor said. “Probably took about 30 seconds, and then I said, ‘I know the guy is bleeding.’ And they said, ‘I’ll send EMS.’ I said, ‘Well, you gotta send the police, too. This isn’t a good situation.’”
Hoctor said he even triggered his own alarm system to get the police to respond quickly. He says HFD arrived quickly, within 10 minutes, but by that time the stranger has made it over his side fence. EMS took the injured man to a hospital, according to the homeowner.
Hoctor said a Houston police officer finally arrived close to 3:30 a.m.
“I thought the fire department did a heck of a job. And HPD, you know, I respect the heck out of, but by the time they showed up, I forgot they were even called and I was like, ‘why are you here now,’” Hoctor said. “If the guy was really that bad of a situation we’d all be dead right now.”
An HPD spokesperson confirmed to KPRC 2 they received a call from the Houston Emergency Center at 3:01 a.m. The spokesperson said their officer was dispatched at 3:27 a.m. and arrived at the location at 3:31 a.m.
It is unclear whether HEC initially dispatched both agencies or only the fire department.