CLEVELAND — Calls to 911 flooded in about a block party on Highview Drive and Lee Road on Cleveland's east side.
On July 19, 15-year-old Darnell Haynes was shot and later died. Three other teens were wounded.
Haynes' mother, Tiffanie Padgett, and the people who called the police that night, want to know why pleas for help took so long to answer.
Call records show that for one hour, people who live on Highview Drive and neighboring streets warned police that something bad could happen.
The calls began just before 11 p.m. about loud music, teens drinking, and running through yards on an otherwise quiet street.
But police records show not one officer showed up, and things got worse just before midnight when eight calls came in about gunfire.
Body camera video released Monday shows police arriving at midnight, an hour after the initial 911 call about the block party.
Officers are seen tending to a girl who was grazed in the eye and then seen running toward people, yelling about another person who was shot.
"And just to know that not one or two people called the police on a whole street, that’s not a red flag?” Padgett said.
News 5 Investigators returned to Highview Drive to find the 911 callers.
One of them, Rodney Brown, went live on social media about what was happening that night outside of his house.
"I just believe, personally, if they had sent maybe one car out, not with the lights and sirens, but just that loud [horn], it would have deterred some of those kids to leave,” Brown said.
One woman said she called the police several times.
"We feel like we’re being ignored when we call for help,” she said.
News 5 Investigators asked Cleveland City Council member and Safety Committee chair, Mike Polensek, about police response times.
"It is taking too long. I’ve had people tell me, not only is it taking too long, they never come,” Polensek said.
News 5 Investigators started asking for information about response times back in April.
Police pointed us to Cleveland’s online data portal. But the information wasn’t there.
Months later, we got details and did the math.
Between January and July, police responded to 19,378 Priority 1 calls, the most serious crimes.
We found the median response time is just over 11 minutes.
Police would not sit down and speak with us about response times. We found Police Chief Annie Todd at a news conference.
The six months of data also showed 2,343 of the Priority 1 calls we analyzed took over half an hour, and 862 of the calls took over an hour.
“I can tell you that, no, it’s not acceptable,” Todd said.
Records show the Highview Drive case was originally marked a Priority 2 about a fight, which is a call where two officers are recommended.
The call was elevated to a Priority 1, a felonious assault, with the shooter/suspect still there.
"When officers are on high-priority assignments and there are several that happen at the same time, it does make it challenging, " Todd said.
News 5 Investigators sent crime data analyst Jeff Asher the six months of data, and he crunched the numbers for all calls citywide.
"The average response time, just looking at police department data, was 54 minutes on average,” Asher said.
So what happens when police are slow or don’t show up?
“It demolishes community trust,” Asher said.
Asher says it can also lead to systemic under-reporting.
"Instead of seeing the crime trends, seeing what happens, you minorly victimized me twice. First, I was victimized by the crime, and then I was victimized by law enforcement not responding to the crime, so I’m less likely to report in the future,” Asher said.
“You have to call,” Todd said.
By our count, two dozen calls came from Highview Drive and neighboring streets from frantic people just waiting for help and wanting to know why it was taking so long.
"Somebody is responsible, somebody’s got to be held responsible for the response time,” Padgett said.
Just this week, police say no one has been arrested in the case.
Police say the response time on the Highview Drive block party and shooting is under review.
