Police have apologised to the son of a former assistant chief constable after it took 15 hours for officers to respond to his report that his life had been threatened, reports Breaking News.
A senior officer apologized to Alan McQuillan’s son Andrew McQuillan and said there were multiple incidents on Tuesday night and no crews were on site.
McQuillan said he contacted police just after 6 p.m.
Officials did not receive a response until after 9 a.m. Wednesday.
McQuillan posted on social media at Site X that he reported a man threatened with a firearm at 6 p.m. Tuesday and an officer failed to respond 14 hours late, “citing lack of officers”, reports Breaking News.
McQuillan said he was in his office around 6 p.m. Tuesday when he received a call from an unknown man threatening him.
He said he called 999 and was told police were on their way.
“Initially, they sent me a WhatsApp message saying they were going to chop me up and my family, they then started phoning constantly from a withheld number, I answered and they basically said they had a gun, they were on their way to shoot me and they were on their way now,” he said, reports Breaking News.
“The initial 999 call was great, they told us to lock the doors and stay inside, and police were on their way. Twenty minutes later, nothing. I phoned police back and they said they were incredibly busy, they said, ‘we don’t have as many police as we used to so we can’t come to you just yet’” he said, reports Breaking News.
District commander for Lisburn and Castlereagh, Superintendent Kelly Moore, said she had apologised directly to Mr McQuillan.
“Police received a report at 6.17pm on Tuesday August 22 of threats against a man. Due to the high volume and nature of ongoing incidents at that time within the Lisburn and Castlereagh area, unfortunately, no crews were available to attend. I have spoken to the reporting person directly and have apologised for officers not attending at the time and understand the distress this has caused him. At 9am this morning, Wednesday August 23, officers attended the address to speak with the reporting person and to offer crime prevention advice. We have launched an investigation and we are treating this as a sectarian hate crime. As part of our policing response we will be increasing patrols of the area to provide reassurance,” she said, reports Breaking News.
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