Death of Carol Ann Gotbaum at PHX Airport

[RDU-JFK]

I'm sure most of you heard the story, but here's the article with a video clip of the arrest:

http://wcbstv.com/local/daughter.in.law.2.313342.html

Basically the woman went nuts after she missed her flight and screamed and made a commotion. Police arrested her and put her in a holding cell. She was found dead 6 minutes later.

I think police did nothing wrong. The woman was shrieking and going nuts. The police couldn't restrain her so they forced her to the ground. The media is now saying that the police were wrong.

Police were only doing their jobs to restrain this woman. I think they did nothing wrong.

[PhilDernerJr]

The police are always wrong to the media, and they will always side with the underdog or loser.

[cancidas]

The police are always wrong to the media, and they will always side with the underdog or loser.

true. that's because our wonderful media has no idea what it's like to be on the other side of those situations.

[emshighway]

Husband desperately tried to warn authorities not to leave his wife alone at Sky Harbor
Husband warned airport of wife's problems
Jahna Berry and Casey Newton
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 5, 2007 12:00 AM

On the same afternoon that Phoenix police arrested a hysterical woman at Sky Harbor International Airport, her husband in New York placed repeated, urgent phone calls to airport authorities, warning them that his wife was suicidal and should not be left alone.

The officers who took Carol Gotbaum into custody didn't know her identity at the time, police said. They handcuffed her, took her from the scene and, because they didn't believe she was a threat to herself or others, placed her alone in a holding room.

Minutes later, they found her dead.

Police reports released Thursday show that her husband, Noah Gotbaum, made increasingly desperate attempts to reach Sky Harbor authorities. But his warnings apparently never reached officers.

"She is suicidal," Noah told an airport dispatcher, according to a transcript made public Thursday. "She is . . . alcohol abusive."

"Uh-hum," the dispatcher said.

"She is also in deep depression and, um, the police have to understand that they're not dealing with someone who's been just drinking on (a) flight and . . . acting rowdy," Noah said.

"OK. Yeah, I think somebody talked to the other dispatcher on that earlier and ... we passed along."

He expressed concern that Carol had been left "all alone."

"Uh-hum," the dispatcher responded.

"OK? Because she should not be."

With each call, Noah became more frustrated, the transcripts show, saying his wife had a medical condition. He wanted the airport to treat her with extreme care, he said.

Police, he said, were "playing with real fire right now."

What ensued was a tragic death that spurred national media attention and questions about how the case was handled.


A missed flight
Carol, a member of a prominent New York political family, had left New York that morning, planning to check herself into an alcohol-rehabilitation program at Cottonwood de Tucson.

After arriving at Sky Harbor, she was scheduled to take a 1:30 p.m. flight to Tucson. She arrived at the gate at 1:06 p.m., according to a statement gate agent Rikki Greiner gave police.

Because the flight was full and overbooked, the airline had given her seat away, Greiner'sstatement said.

Greiner promised to get her on the next flight, at 2:58, and offered her a free round-trip ticket, but Carol "was borderline hysterical because she missed the first flight," the statement said.

Carol complained and later came back to the agent with a ticket from another passenger.

She wanted to give that passenger the free round-trip ticket and wanted to take his seat, instead.

That would be a security breach, Greiner said.

"It was at that point that Ms. Gotbaum began screaming and running around," the statement said.


The phone calls
In police reports, the transcripts of Noah Gotbaum's phone calls are not time stamped.

It is unclear how many times he called the airport. The officials he spoke to are unidentified.

It is also unclear how much Noah knew about his wife's situation, though during at least one call he apparently knew she had been in contact with police.

"You're dealing with (a) medical emergency," Noah told an airport dispatcher. "And if they don't know that, they don't understand."

Members of the Gotbaum family declined to comment on the transcripts Thursday, saying they needed time to grieve.

Police and airport officials on Thursday refused to comment specifically on the transcripts. They have said that the officers who arrested Carol, and who later tried to save her life, were unaware of the family's calls.

"The officers had no knowledge of any of Ms. Gotbaum's personal issues," Sgt. Andy Hill said Wednesday. "They had not been apprised of any calls from the family to the airport seeking to locate Ms. Gotbaum."

Police have said that, had they believed she was a threat to herself, she would not have been left alone.

At least one officer who arrested Carol Gotbaum, Andrew Woyna, didn't know her name, according to the police report.

"After leaving her in the room for a while, three to four minutes, (Woyna) noticed she had quit screaming and thought that he might be able to determine her identity," the report said.

"He then went to the door and looked in at her."

By then, she was slumped on the floor of the room, shackled and unconscious.

The Maricopa County Medical Examiner has not yet released an official cause of death.

Throughout that Friday afternoon, Noah Gotbaum kept trying to get through to his wife.

Repeatedly, he explained the situation to dispatchers.

Many of their responses were similar:

"Well, I will pass this on to (the) lieutenant," one airport dispatcher told him when the two discussed family friend David Watson, who was expected to arrive to help Carol.

"And once again," the dispatcher said, "see what they will do and then when David Watson gets here we'll go ahead and direct 'em in the police office."

Noah Gotbaum pressed: "This is a medical emergency. They're not dealing with some lout who's just drank too much on an airplane. That's not what's going on here."

"OK," the dispatcher said.

"This woman is suicidal," he said. And they need to . . . deal with very kid gloves. They don't know what they're dealing with."

[LGA777]

While this is a very sad occurance, with her condtion perhaps a family member should have travelled with her ? Since she comes from such a well to do family I would think money would not have been an issue. I feel deeply sorry for the gate agents and Airport Police Officers who where just doing their jobs.

Regards

LGA777

[G-BOAD]

If they didnt know who she was at the time, how could the husband have called the police telling them they captured a women with an alochol problem. Anyway, I think LGA777 is right, someone should have gone with her. This is sad, but the police were only doing their job.