Shot Off-duty D.C. Firefighter Calls Station for Help after Dispatchers Don't Answer 9-1-1

An off-duty D.C. firefighter, recovering from a gunshot wound, called colleagues at his fire station for help when no one answered his 9-1-1 call.

"As I crossed the street, I heard somebody running up on me. I turned around, and the guy was right up on me. He pulled out a gun and said, ‘give me your phone.’ I gave him my phone and everything I had in my hands. He gave me my phone back and said, ‘I need you to unlock something on it,’ and I didn’t know what he was talking about or what that was.”

"He put the gun up to my chest, and he was gonna kill me. I grabbed the barrel of the gun and I pushed it away and as I did, he pulled the trigger," Firefighter Gary "Zeke" Dziekan told WJLA, showing a bandage that covers the wound.

Dziekan picked up the gun and fired in the direction where the teen ran.

Within seconds of shooting, he returned and asked for help as he also was injured. 

After dialing 9-1-1, Dziekan placed the phone on the sidewalk while taking off his shirt to apply pressure on his wound. But, no one in the communications center answered.

A citizen who heard the commotion ran to help. Dziekan had him call his fire station.

"They answer, and I just said it’s Zeke. I’m at 8th and C Northeast. I’ve been shot and I need help, and they said we’re on our way. They were here probably within less than a minute."

Now, he's demanding an answer from the 9-1-1 center.

"I mean, accountability at OUC is not there. It’s sad that the Nation's Capital has to deal with a 9-1-1 group that operates the way that they do."