Wife Of Slain Man Says Police Failed To Respond When Reporting Husband’s Abduction

Talija Campbell is searching for answers after she said Colorado Springs Police failed to promptly respond to her 911 call that her husband had been taken captive.

According to The Washington Post, Campbell received a panicked text message on June 2 from her husband, Qualin Campbell, with a photo of a man sitting in the passenger seat of his car. “911,” he wrote. “Send help.”

Upon receiving the message, which also included his exact location, Campbell immediately called 911 and told the emergency dispatcher that she believed her husband had been abducted.

After over an hour had passed with no update, Campbell decided to drive to the location herself. Upon arrival, her fears were actualized when she saw her husband slumped inside of his work vehicle seated next to another man who appeared unconscious. The image, she says, is one she “can never get rid of.”

“I shouldn’t have been the one there, the first person to respond,” she said. “It was me who had to perform CPR on my husband in a pool of blood.”

Qualin Campbell was pronounced dead on the scene.

Harrison Daniels, the family’s attorney, says they plan to hold the Colorado Springs Police Department accountable for its lack of urgency, according to 9News.

“No excuses here can be fitting or justified for why they didn’t do their job that day,” he said. The department is investigating Qualin Campbell’s death as a homicide but very few details have been shared about the case, including information on the alleged killer, 44-year-old David Karels.

For now, the Campbell family is grieving the loss of the “gentle giant” and father of two who they believe may still be alive if law enforcement had shown up in a timely fashion. “I can’t think of anything that could take higher precedence than a hostage situation, except maybe an active shooter,” Daniels said.