The Josh Powell murder-suicide case involving two young children is so heartbreaking, it is easy to see why we want to find someone to blame. The latest victim is the 911 operator whose 8-minute delay in dispatching the authorities to the house is being partially blamed for the tragedy when Powell blew up his house, killing himself and his two children.
David Lovrak, one of the 911 operators who took the call from a social worker outside Josh Powell's house, had an interview with NBC’s Dateline Friday night where he expressed remorse and guilt over the delay and his handling of the call. But he had no way of understanding the situation and he should not feel guilty.
In fact, the only person who should feel guilty is Powell. See Lovrak below:
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Lovrak clearly feels guilty that it took 22 minutes to get a deputy to the scene, saying:
Especially for somebody who has done this for as long as I have, to re-listen to the call and hear how clumsy and faltering I sounded. It was horrible. This has been a nightmare...Realizing what we all know now, I wish I had recognized the urgency of the situation.
He is right. He should have recognized it, but in the end, there is nothing he could have done.
Powell had attacked his children with a hatchet just moments after they arrived at their father's home with the social worker. Powell claimed he had a "surprise" for them and then attacked them and blew up the home.
To think that those children had placed all of their trust in their father and believed he was going to surprise them truly is heart-wrenching. But the amount of people Powell leaves feeling guilty and bewildered is also sick and cruel.
Everyone from the social worker to Lovrak is blaming themselves, but there is nothing anyone could have done. Powell is a sick, sick man who has left so much guilt and shame in his wake, it is nauseating.
According to Elizabeth Griffin-Hall, the social worker who had the boys Charles, 7, and Braden, 5, Powell was a man who knew what he was going to do:
He caught my eye, his shoulders were slumped. He had a sheepish look. He just shrugged his shoulders and slammed the door.
There is nothing anyone could have done to save those boys and that fact will haunt us all. Sure, we want to assign blame to someone living who can be the scapegoat for all this. I do, too. It is a tragic case and anyone of us can look at it and think of our own precious children. But the fact is, these children were taken by someone who should have been protecting them and there is nothing anyone could have done to stop him.
Hindsight does nothing but cause unnecessary guilt and grief. We are all struggling to understand but there is no one to blame here but Powell himself.
Do you think the 911 operator shares some blame for being slow?
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Comments (22)
I think its human nature to find a way to blame. We blame the victim, the parents, everyone in between because we would like to make ourselves feel better. For example, we might say "oh, that would never happen to me because I wouldn't have allowed the visits in the first place".
I often think of the social worker and 911 Operator, truly tragic and will rest on their shoulders unfairly for the rest of their lives.
Oh I'm sure Susan's family has PLENTY lot to say about who's to blame: the UT detectives and DA who didn't deal with the investigation properly in the first place. THEY should be investigated. Watch for Wrongful Death lawsuit.
Any call with children involved should be taken seriously and urgently no matter what. Especially when there is already a case worker involved.
That being said, I feel bad for this man, and the social worker, the judge, the cox family lawyer, etc. None of these people could have known what was to come. Even if those children never went to Josh Powell's house, this animal had a death wish and could have carried it out in many other ways. He easily could have gone to the Coxes with a gun and killed everyone, since he wanted to die himself.
I'm thinking of them and their family today as I watch their funeral. The tissue box is not far away.
Sorry, he should feel guilty. A social worker called 911 because she felt the children were in danger. I don't understand why he didn't do his job.