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911 Calls Unanswered Before Woman Shot, Paralyzed: Lawsuit

A woman who was paralyzed in a shooting allegedly committed by her ex-boyfriend claims in a new lawsuit that Dallas police failed to respond to repeated calls for help and kicked her as she lay wounded because they did not believe she was unable to move. 

Roxanna Mayo is seeking more than $1 million in damages following the Jan. 19 shooting, which has left her paralyzed from the chest down, except for one arm. She said her then-boyfriend of about six months, Quadriq Anthony Sharper, was drunk and threatening her and her children on the day of the attack. So she, her mother and her daughter called 911 for help repeatedly at about 4:30 p.m. The lawsuit claims that police didn't respond until more than an hour later, after a neighbor reported the shooting.

“If they’d have come out the first five times we called I wouldn’t be paralyzed," Mayo said in an interview. "And my whole family wouldn’t be destroyed and none of this would have happened." 

Once they did respond, Mayo’s lawsuit says, Dallas officers kicked her as she lay wounded because they did not believe she was paralyzed.

“They said, 'If you’re paralyzed, do you feel this?' And they were kicking me in the front and the back,” Mayo said.

The lawsuit claims Mayo ran a successful salon in a Knox-Henderson area high-rise, earning $100,000 a year before the incident, but now she is unable to support her four children. In the meantime Mayo is seeking GoFundMe donations to cover staggering medical bills.

Spokespersons for the Dallas Police Department and the city attorney said the city declines comment on pending litigation.

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After delayed response to a 2012 domestic violence call that turned out to be fatal, Dallas promised 911 reforms, including 45 additional call takers to improve response during periods of heavy call volume.

Sharper, who was in the Dallas County Jail Wednesday, is charged with aggravated assault in connection with the shooting. An arrest warrant says he told an officer that he meant to "scare" Mayo with the gun, but it fired accidentally during a struggle, according to the Dallas Morning News. A comment on the lawsuit claims was not immediately available on Thursday.

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