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Chicago Tribune
3 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
Chesterton sent email invitation for council meeting, but commissioner says he didn't get it
Chesterton Town Council President Sharon Darnell, D-4th, produced an email she sent July 3 that invited Porter County Commissioner Jim Biggs to attend the July 14 council meeting to discuss concerns he raised about the performance of the Chesterton/Porter police dispatch. The Town of Chesterton on its Facebook page posted Darnell's invitation email, sent on behalf of all five council members, as a rebuttal to a statement from Biggs made to the Post-Tribune on Monday that he 'was never formally invited through email, phone call or written letter to attend this meeting.' But Biggs, R-North, said that he never received the email from Darnell. He said he had the county's IT Department review the email account for July 3 and posted screenshots on his Facebook page, which did not show an email from Darnell. Among the things the council wanted to discuss with Biggs was his call for the Chesterton/Porter dispatch center to join the Porter County E911 system on June 18, about 75 minutes after Chesterton's police-involved shooting. An officer was wounded and Joseph Gerber, 45, died from a self-inflicted gunshot after being hit several times during a gunfire exchange in front of the Hilton Garden Inn on Gateway Boulevard. The Indiana State Police are investigating. In addition, the Chesterton Town Council, with the support of Porter's town council, has called for the resignation of Debby Gunn, the director of the county E911 system, for her remarks about the performance of the Chesterton/Porter dispatch center. The county has contended that it took nearly five minutes to call an ambulance to the shooting scene at the Hilton Inn, which Chesterton and Porter denied. A possible explanation for why Biggs didn't receive the email is Darnell sent it to Biggs at a address, which was listed as the contact information on the county website, said Kevin Nevers, Chesterton's spokesman. The county changed its email domain name during the past year. The website now lists the email for Biggs with the correct address. However, Biggs said that even if an email was sent to the old address, he should have received it. Biggs said after he learned that the old email address was on his commissioner page website, he called and had it changed this week. Darnell's email invitation called upon Biggs to come to the meeting 'to openly discuss the concerns and topics you raised during your July 1 press conference.' 'As you rightly stated, this is not about any one individual or group – it is about our residents and the broader community. With that in mind, we believe that any meaningful discussion regarding public safety, inter-agency communication, and improving collaboration between the town and the county should be held in a transparent and public forum.' 'Your presence would provide an opportunity for both the Council and our community members to engage directly with you, ask questions, and work together toward shared solutions. Please let us know at your earliest convenience if you are available to attend. We hope that you will take the opportunity to join us in fostering open, constructive dialogue on issues that affect us all,' the invitation email states. When asked if he would have attended the July 14 meeting if he had received and read the email, Biggs replied: 'Had I received it, I would have taken that as an olive branch of sorts.' Biggs, who lives in Chesterton, said he would have followed up with a phone call to Darnell, whom he has known for years. He said he would want to know exactly what was going to be discussed to determine if he would have come to the July 14 meeting. At this point, Biggs said he didn't want to get into an 'argument' or an 'inquisition.' He said he would be open to meeting with Darnell. The Post-Tribune contacted Darnell via email, and she didn't reply. Darnell during the meeting Monday stated her disappointment that Biggs wasn't there. 'I am not a person who likes to meet anywhere but in a public forum,' Darnell said. 'Maybe we'll figure something else out, but that's the only way we're going to figure this whole thing out. We're not going to do it in a closed room.' Porter County has reached out to Chesterton Police Chief Tim Richardson, along with new Porter Police Chief Dan Dickey, to discuss ways that the E911 system could improve the working relationship with the Chesterton/Porter Police dispatch, Biggs said. Biggs said that Chesterton and Porter certainly can keep their dispatch center, and he doesn't fault the performance of the Porter Police dispatcher the morning of June 18. He said that the local dispatch, though, doesn't have the capabilities of the E911 system. He said the problem is when Chesterton or Porter police need an ambulance, they have to call the E911 dispatch and there can be a delay. On the morning of June 18, an E911 dispatcher happened to hear the radio transmission of the officer being shot and immediately dispatched an ambulance. The financial realities posed by Senate Bill 1, in which town governments are projected to lose revenue, could cause a reconsideration by Chesterton and Porter in the coming years, Biggs said. The E911 system already handles 911 calls, fire and ambulance dispatch for the two communities. Councilwoman Erin Collins, D-2nd, who with Darnell briefly met with Biggs after his July 1 news conference, said that the intent of inviting Biggs to the Town Council meeting 'was not an ambush.' 'He has concerns, we want to hear them in a public setting,' Collins said.
Chicago Tribune
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Commissioner Jim Biggs doesn't show at council meeting as controversy continues over dispatch
Porter County Commissioner Jim Biggs was placed on the agenda to speak at Monday's Chesterton Town Council meeting, but didn't show to the disappointment of council members. Chesterton town council members said that Biggs twice was publicly invited in particular to discuss his statements about the Chesterton/Porter joint dispatch center after the June 18 officer-involved shooting in front of the Hilton Inn on Gateway Boulevard. Joseph P. Gerber, 45, died from a self-inflicted wound after exchanging several gunshots with two Chesterton police officers, wounding one of them. But Biggs said in a statement issued to the Post-Tribune that he 'was never formally invited through email, phone call, or written letter to attend this meeting.' 'Furthermore, no town official has approached me with an invitation to attend this meeting. It was only through a newspaper article, and a Facebook post did I learn that I had been added to the agenda. Lastly, it does our public and the concern for officer safety an injustice to attend and be subjected to more petty personal attacks in order to deflect from the real issue at hand,' Biggs said. Council President Sharon Darnell, D-4th, said that she and Councilwoman Erin Collins, D-2nd, had attended a news conference Biggs held on July 1 and spoke to him afterward. She said that Biggs stated his most pointed issue was to be able to discuss 'freely and openly' the county E911 center and the Chesterton/Porter joint dispatch. 'I am not a person who likes to meet anywhere but in a public forum,' Darnell said. 'Maybe we'll figure something else out, but that's the only way we're going to figure this whole thing out. We're not going to do it in a closed room.' Collins said that Biggs was invited twice by the council to appear. 'I think it was an opportunity for Commissioner Biggs to address the very people that he was elected to represent and serve. His absence tonight is a disservice to them and to the spirit of transparency and accountability in local government,' Collins said. Biggs lives in Chesterton and is the commissioner who represents northern Porter County. He is the president of that board. Collins said that at some point, the town and the county should have a meeting. 'They must take place in public. Not behind closed doors, not through political press conferences and certainly not by exploiting a tragedy to advance a narrative.' Collins said. Collins said the council stands firm in its call for the resignation of Debby Gunn as the E-911 administrator 'for repeated unprofessional conduct and false and misleading public statements.' Gunn contended there was a nearly five-minute delay in the request for an ambulance to the officer, an allegation that was staunchly denied by the town of Chesterton. On the morning of the shooting, Biggs contacted the Post-Tribune and noted that it was time for the Chesterton/Porter dispatch to join the county's E-911 system and that an increase in the county law enforcement tax was needed to cover it. Councilman James Ton, R-1st, said that Chesterton adheres to the standards of the Shared Ethics Advisory Commission and should a meeting occur, the town is committed to 'civility and transparency'. 'I haven't witnessed this in some discussions of this in the past,' Ton said. Biggs, in his statement to the Post-Tribune Monday, said as a resident, some might have the same questions about why Chesterton and Porter would continue to want to have a separate dispatch center. The commissioner listed several questions which included: why in a police emergency is a caller required to speak to two different dispatchers in two location; if the E911 center handles all medical and fire calls, aren't they good enough to handle police calls; if the E911 center is good enough to dispatch police for every other municipality, why isn't it good enough for Chesterton and Porter; and do the residents receive any money outside of Chesterton and Porter taxpayers' dollars to fund the separate dispatch center. 'If the residents of Chesterton and Porter have more questions concerning this issue, I, as their commissioner, would be happy to facilitate a forum of non-biased public safety officials to provide answers,' Biggs said. 'It is true that Chesterton and Porter are under no obligation to consolidate now or ever. This is also true from the county's perspective. As things now stand, this will continue to be the financial responsibility and public safety liability for the governing bodies and law enforcement leadership of both towns.' Chesterton Police Chief Tim Richardson said he did receive an email from Gunn two days ago, asking if he and Porter Police Chief Dan Dickey would want to sit down with her to speak about how to make the operation between the two dispatch centers more efficient. Richardson said that if the meeting occurs, he wants to have his council liaison, who is Ton, attend. Jennifer Klug, a Porter resident, said that she believes the towns should keep their joint dispatch center. 'I don't appreciate Mr. Biggs or Ms. Gunn saying some of the things they did in public. I think that it's not only unprofessional, but I think in a situation like that, people have to stand together and work on something,' Klug said.
Daily Mirror
05-07-2025
- Daily Mirror
Inside Ronnie Biggs' prison escape more daring than audacious £2.4m robbery
The Great Train Robbery convict's best friend lifts the lid on Ronnie Biggs' incredible life as the world's most famous fugitive It was one of the most audacious crimes in British history. But nearly two years after the Great Train Robbery shocked and fascinated the country, an equally daring escape turned the least significant member of the gang into the world 's most famous fugitive. Ronnie Biggs played only a minor part in the 1963 robbery of the Glasgow-to-London mail train. Recruited late, he didn't handle any of the loot and only earned a relatively small share of the record £2.4m haul. Caught three weeks later - after his fingerprints were found on a tomato sauce bottle - the petty criminal seemed destined to be little more than a footnote in the story of an infamous heist. But 60 years ago on Monday, Ronnie, then 36, pulled off something even more extraordinary than the robbery itself, 15 months after he was jailed for 30 years - by escaping. By the end of the summer of 1965, and during the ensuing years, as he fled around the world, eventually settling in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, everyone would know his name. Biggs was sent to Wandsworth Prison, south west London, in April 1964, after losing his appeal, with the judge slamming the robbery as 'an act of organised banditry touching new depths of lawlessness'. A high security jail housing some of Britain's most dangerous criminals - that didn't stop Biggs from smuggling in cans of lobster and crab meat, or listening to pop music on a small illegal radio. Biggs, who died in 2013, later wrote in his autobiography how a hit song by The Seekers became the 'inspiration' for his escape. He wrote: 'It contained the line, 'There's a new world somewhere, they call it the promised land'.' Biggs, helped by two fellow inmates, started to meticulously plan what would become Wandsworth's most brazen escape. And he later told Chris Pickard, his best friend in Rio, who ghostwrote Biggs' books, how he managed it. Chris says: 'He and another prisoner, Paul Seabourne, came up with some crazy plans. One idea was a helicopter, which they decided would be too dangerous. 'Every afternoon they were allowed to walk around the yard for an hour. Ron and Paul worked out that the wall of that courtyard was the outside wall of the prison. Then Ron managed to count the bricks in the wall, which is hard to do as you're walking around. Because he was a builder and knew the size of a brick, he worked out the escape height of the wall, 25ft. 'That was higher than a removal van, but if you put an extension on the top of the van it could reach the top.' Seabourne was released in April 1965 and began to coordinate the jail break from the outside. He would get information to Biggs through the bent lawyers of another prisoner, Eric Flower, who was due to be sentenced for armed robbery and planned to escape with him. Another two inmates agreed to grab the prison officers as soon as Seabourne threw a rope ladder over the wall. 'They knew they'd get into trouble, but they said they'd look after that for the honour of helping Ron,' Chris says. Prisoners were normally chosen at random for one of the two walkabouts at different times in the day, so the conspirators devised a plan to get out of being picked for the first one, which included feigning illness or running out of twine for sewing the mail bags. In the countdown to the planned breakout, Biggs became more anxious. 'He was very nervous, he knew there was so much that could go wrong,' says Chris. 'He also realised that if you're going to climb up a basic rope ladder at that height, you have to be pretty fit. So he was having to be pretty discreet in his prison cell, doing press ups and sit ups without making it obvious. 'He said that several of the guards made comments, like 'good to see you're keeping in shape, Ron,' and he had to joke about why he was doing it, but they didn't catch on.' The escape was set for 3.05 on July 7, 1965 - but just before they were due to walk around the yard it started to lightly rain and the session was cancelled. Chris says: 'Luckily for them, Paul Seabourne, who was driving to Wandsworth in the removals van, also realised they wouldn't be let out in the rain, so turned back. They had agreed that if anything happened the escape would be put back a day.' The next day, Seabourne returned - but first went round every red telephone box in the vicinity and unscrewed the mouthpieces, so no-one would be able to call the police. Biggs' wife, Charmian, who was also in on the plan and who had provided the money to pay for the escape, had gone to Whipsnade Zoo for a day out, so she had an alibi and couldn't be implicated. This time, everything worked perfectly. 'Ron said that, as they walked around the yard they could hear the old removal truck pulling up outside. Then a head appeared over the wall with the traditional stockings over the face, and the rope ladders came down. Ron and Eric made a beeline for it, while these two other guys rugby-tackled the guards. 'They went up and over the wall, followed by two other men who decided they wanted to escape too. They jumped onto a mattress in the van, then all piled into the back of a waiting green Ford Zephyr and drove off. 'Ron told me they passed some police cars with their sirens on going in the other direction, but nobody followed them. 'Paul had assumed they would be chased by the police, so the plan was for them to turn into a cul-de-sac, run down a pathway and get into another waiting car. In fact, they weren't being followed at all, so didn't have to do anything in a rush.' After dropping off the others at Tube stations, Biggs and Flower went back with Seabourne to his flat in Dulwich, south east London, where they toasted their success with champagne. The two escapees were later taken to a safe house in Bermondsey, south east London. The next day, the front page of the Daily Mirror called Biggs' jail break 'the great escape' and quoted a Scotland Yard spokesman warning that the gang may be armed and that the public should not approach them. Chris says: 'In fact, Biggs was offered a gun, but he refused to take it. But it was all over the news, and for the next weeks everyone was spotting Ron everywhere. 'On July 14 police swooped on Heathrow airport, believing Ron was hiding in a crate, which caused chaos, but he wasn't there, he was just sitting in the safe house.' Even Madame Tussauds created waxwork figures of Biggs, as well as Charlie Wilson, another train robber who had escaped from Birmingham's Winson Green Prison a year earlier. By August, the two fugitives were getting fed up of staring at the walls of the London flat, so a house was rented for them in Bognor Regis, where they were finally united with their wives. In October 1965, Biggs and Flower made their way to Paris where their faces were changed by plastic surgery. Under the name 'Terence Furminger', Biggs settled in Adelaide in Australia, joined by Charmian and their children. Eric Flower lived in Sydney until he was captured in 1969 and sent back to Wandsworth to finish his 12-year sentence. With the police closing in on him, in 1970 Biggs flew to Brazil on a false passport, later divorcing Charmian. Under a new name, Michael Haynes, he began to build a new life for himself in Rio. Having a son, Michael, with his Brazilian lover Raimunda de Castro, also won him immunity from extradition under Brazilian law. Chris, who was working as a journalist in the South American city, became a close friend. He says: 'We would spend a lot of time together, sometimes at his house or over food at restaurants, just chatting. Eventually, he asked if I could help write his book because he wanted to set the record straight.' Chris says that it was always his escape from Wandsworth, and not the train robbery, which Biggs talked about most. 'It was his plan, his work, whereas he had nothing to do with the Great Train Robbery. And it was because of that, and not the actual robbery, that he became infamous. 'Although he'd spent all the money by the time he arrived in Rio, it was his fame that allowed him to have such a good life there. 'I'd go round to his house and you never knew who you'd find, a famous celebrity, a journalist or singer. He even had the Sex Pistols round and ended up writing and recording one of their biggest hits. It was an extraordinary life.' Biggs suffered his first stroke in 1998, although he recovered to throw a 70th birthday party. However, second and third strokes followed, permanently ending his days of beaches and parties. In 2001, after evading capture for 36 years, Biggs was arrested and sent to London's high-security Belmarsh prison, where he once again became Prisoner 002731, the same number he was given in April 1964 when he entered Wandsworth. In July 2007 he was moved to a unit for elderly inmates at Norwich Prison, and granted compassionate release from his prison sentence on August 6 2009, just two days before his 80th birthday. Finally free and no longer a fugitive, but imprisoned by his own ailments and unable to eat, speak or walk, he died four years later.
Chicago Tribune
01-07-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Chesterton, Porter and county officials try to move forward after rift from June shooting
There were glimmers of possibility Tuesday morning for Porter County and the towns of Chesterton and Porter to mend their rift following an officer-involved shooting on June 18. While facts continue to be disputed by the towns and county, Chesterton Town Council President Sharon Darnell, D-4th, and Vice President Erin Collins, D-2nd, engaged in cordial talk with Porter County Board of Commissioners President Jim Biggs, R-North, and Porter County E911 Director Debby Gunn following a news conference organized by Biggs in the commissioners chambers at the county administration building Tuesday morning. County officials did not take questions during the two-part presentation. Biggs and Gunn have called for Chesterton and Porter's dispatch to merge with county dispatch and Biggs has suggested increasing the county's local income tax to cover the expense, as first reported by the Post-Tribune June 22. Officials from both towns have said they are not interested in a merger. The shooting is under investigation by Indiana State Police; the injured officer is recovering at home and he and the second officer involved in the shooting remain on paid leave. The Post-Tribune is not naming the officers because of the open investigation. Gunn, whom the towns have called upon to step down for what they say has been fear mongering regarding the safety and efficacy of their police dispatch center which is independent of the county dispatch consortium, gave a timeline of events on June 18, followed by a refuting of various statements made by the Chesterton Town Council and various entities. Porter County Board of Commissioners President Jim Biggs, R-North, has gotten much criticism for reaching out to The Post-Tribune shortly after a Chesterton officer was shot and airlifted to an Illinois hospital and a suspect died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head after exchanging fire with police and being hit multiple times in front of the Hilton Garden Inn in the 500 block of Gateway Boulevard. 'At no time during or following this incident did I, or anyone from PCCC (Porter County Central Communications), contact the press,' Gunn said as she began her remarks. Collins shook her head throughout the 16 statements pulled primarily from Facebook and news articles that Gunn refuted individually, except one. That statement from a town of Chesterton Facebook post on June 26 reads, 'Officers from area departments have told CPD staff that PCCC never advised many of them that there was an active shooter/officer down over their respective radio channels for which the regional E911 center dispatches.' Gunn said that is true, that the Valparaiso Police Department was not advised of the incident. Regarding the town of Chesterton's intention to draft letters to the Porter County Council, the Board of Commissioners and the state's public access counselor requesting an investigation of potential disclosure of privileged information by Gunn per Indiana Code 5-24-3-6.5, Gunn said that code was repealed in 2019. After Gunn concluded her presentation, Biggs spoke briefly, saying calls for Gunn to step down are 'unwarranted' and 'baseless.' He said considering that 80% of the dispatched calls to the two towns involve first responders dispatched by PC E911, it is untrue that the events of that day are none of the county's business. 'When that incident occurred on the 18th, that broke me,' he said. 'I will apologize to the towns of Chesterton and Porter if I have not conveyed that accurately.' 'We will continue to agree to disagree on the facts that were presented today,' Darnell said after the event. From her perspective, Collins said staffing issues preclude the county from being able to take on police dispatching for the two towns. 'Why don't they have the staffing opportunity for that? I believe it's because of the director,' she said, adding that people are still leaving despite pay increases. 'It's been a constant, the issues within the county dispatch,' she said. 'The toxic environment that is going on in Porter County Dispatch.' After the event, Biggs and Gunn spent time speaking with Collins and Darnell. 'Sharon just told me that years ago, when the consolidation was considered, they had some equipment that allowed them to speak directly to Porter County,' Biggs said. He said he told her that they should see if the county could share the cost of reinstating that system if cost is an issue. He agreed with Collins that absorbing the eight full-time and 11 part-time dispatchers from the Porter/Chesterton Dispatch Center could be challenging if they agreed to consolidate, but not because of leadership. He thinks an additional four to six dispatchers would be needed to consolidate and isn't sure they would be able to absorb all 19. Even a lesser amount would have to be worked out in the county's budgeting process that begins in August for next year. Biggs was asked why he hadn't reached out to the town of Chesterton. 'I did,' he said. 'I talked to (Police Chief) Tim Richardson yesterday. I told him that we're ready to meet. We need to get past this. It is not good for either unit of government.' For his part, Richardson, who watched the news conference on live stream, said Gunn's numbers don't add up on the timeline she provided. 'She's complaining about 57 seconds, when it took the E911 Center one minute and 38 seconds to dispatch an ambulance.' He also said Gunn's Fact Check #15, in which she said a guest commentary to local media outlets from January was written by a PCCC administrative staff member other than herself, was untrue. He provided a copy of an email from Biggs dated Jan. 14 that says in part, 'Tim, I should tell you I reviewed the letter before it was sent out,' and 'This is precisely why I felt Debbie needed to respond.' The Porter Town Council, meanwhile, released a statement Tuesday morning expressing solidarity with the town of Chesterton and their shared dispatch center. The council cited the 'continued onslaught of public pressure and false accusations levied by our own county commissioner and the director of County E911.' The accusations concern the performance of the Chesterton/Porter dispatch center for the June 18 police involved shooting. 'Chesterton's call for the director's resignation is both reasonable and necessary. The Council stands behind our Police Chief's statement 100%,' said the statement signed by Council President Laura Madigan.
Chicago Tribune
28-06-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Chesterton officials call for investigation, resignation of Porter County 911 director
Chesterton's Town Council and Chesterton Police Chief Tim Richardson are calling for the immediate resignation of Porter County E-911 Director Debbie Gunn, accusing her of false statements regarding the performance of the Chesterton/Porter joint dispatch center during the June 18 officer-involved shooting. In addition, the town of Chesterton says they will send letters to the Porter County Council, County Commissioners and the Indiana Public Access Counselor that will request an investigation into Gunn's 'potential disclosure of privileged information' connected with specific evidence in the officer-involved shooting case. Incoming Porter Police Chief Dan Dickey on Friday issued a statement supporting Chesterton's call for Gunn's resignation, noting that her 'decision to publicly share detailed information during an active investigation was not only factually inaccurate but also inappropriately timed.' Porter County Commissioners President Jim Biggs said calls for Gunn to step down are ridiculous. 'This woman is, in my opinion, the best director that we have had in decades,' he said. 'She has given her life to making that dispatch center better.' The controversy that pits the towns of Chesterton and Porter against Gunn and Biggs, R-North, whose district includes the towns, is over how long it took an ambulance to be dispatched to the scene of the shootout on Gateway Boulevard in front of the Hilton Garden Inn the morning of June 18. Gunn maintains that the very existence of the 911 center is the issue. 'It's about the inefficient communication from a disparate center,' she said by phone Friday afternoon. 'The true issue is the inefficiencies of a separate dispatch center.' Two Chesterton police officers were dispatched June 18 to check on a 'suspicious' man on the hotel grounds. The officers' interaction with Joseph P. Gerber quickly escalated into an exchange of gunfire on Gateway Boulevard. Gerber, 45, of Winamac, fatally shot himself after being hit several times and a Chesterton police officer was shot. The Chesterton police officer is at home recovering. Gunn contends it took nearly five minutes for the Chesterton Police dispatcher to request an ambulance. Biggs, a short time after the shooting, cited the delay as evidence that it was time for Chesterton and Porter to disband and join the county's E911 consortium and that a local income tax needs to be raised to help pay for it. In a lengthy post on the town's Facebook page issued Thursday night, the town of Chesterton presented a detailed rebuttal. It is the second statement by the Town Council, which on June 23 heavily criticized statements from Biggs and Gunn that first appeared in the Post-Tribune. Chesterton officials stated they were releasing the statement Thursday because they wanted to quell any 'false panic' that Gunn and Biggs may have caused about the performance of the joint dispatch center. They defended the response to the June 18 incident as being 'first class.' Chief Richardson said Friday: 'We don't see any delayed response anywhere.' After the reaction from the Town Council to the Post-Tribune's June 22 story criticizing response times, Gunn and Biggs have stuck to their original remarks. 'As such, they are seemingly attempting to create undue panic among the citizens of Duneland with their baseless claims,' the statement said. Biggs has received considerable backlash with accusations he politicized the shooting or, at the very least, showed a lack of decorum in using it to push for the towns of Chesterton and Porter to join the county's E911 consortium on the very day of the tragedy. Some responding to the town's release on Facebook have even called for Biggs to resign. He, too, is unapologetic, releasing his own lengthy post on Facebook and scheduling a news conference for 10 a.m. Tuesday in the commissioners chambers at the county administration building to go over the timeline from the day of the shooting with documentation from Gunn's office. 'I haven't been inaccurate. I haven't done any political posturing. It's an issue that has been brewing for years. I have received several complaints over the years,' he said of the current set-up in which PC E911 dispatches fire and EMS for Chesterton and Porter, but directs police calls back to the two towns, which run dispatch out of Porter. Police Chief Richardson said with Thursday's statement, the town 'wanted to take the emotion out of it and present our case with facts and evidence.' The Post-Tribune filed an Access to Public Records Act request with Chesterton for copies of the 911 calls related to the shooting, which was denied because 'they are investigatory records of a law enforcement agency.' The town presented the following timeline and evidence: At 8:03:50 a.m., the Chesterton Police officer reports from Gateway Boulevard: 'Shots fired, I'm hit.' The Chesterton Police dispatcher, who was balancing other calls, contacts Porter County Central Communications at 8:04:48 and the dispatcher is on the line for 46 seconds, which refutes Gunn's claims that five minutes passed before police requested an ambulance. Gunn said, 'They did call 58 seconds after' an officer announced on his radio that shots were fired and he was hit, but that call came in on the administrative line. 'And 911 calls always take precedence,' Gunn said, explaining the center was swamped with them while the incident was unfolding. 'Even there, even in that argument from them, that's 58 extra seconds.' The dispatcher learns that while she was on hold, according to the town's narrative, another Porter County Communications dispatcher had radioed the ambulance station for Northwest Health at East Porter Avenue and Indiana 49. A license plate reader camera records the departure from that station at 8:08:17. Chesterton Police Sgt. Jamie Copollo, who heard the 'shots fired' call, passed East Porter Avenue and Ind. 49 at 8:05:46. She arrived at Gateway Boulevard at 8:07:30, closely followed by Porter Police Sgt. Thomas Blythe and Officer Matthew Reynolds, who heard the same distress call. Copollo radioed at 8:08:13 to dispatch that fire and EMS could enter the scene because it was deemed safe. Porter Police officers Blythe and Reynolds were already administering first aid to the downed officer. The first ambulance arrived at 8:09:03, followed closely by the second ambulance. 'This evidence unequivocally disproves another baseless claim made by Director Gunn, namely that CPD dispatch caused valuable minutes lost in ambulance response time to the shooting scene. In fact, she attempted to claim five valuable minutes lost by the CPD dispatcher's not requesting an ambulance for those five (5) minutes, according to the Sunday (June 22) Post-Tribune article,' the statement said. Additionally, officers told Chesterton Police staff that the Porter County Communications Center never advised any of them that there was an active shooter or officer down. A Valparaiso Police officer, who was patrolling near Chesterton at the time, was never informed about what was happening. 'Valuable law enforcement response time was lost by PCCC's not broadcasting this information,' the statement said. At the end of the Facebook post, Chesterton again asks for Gunn's resignation. 'Presented with this overwhelming amount of factual evidence, and given that this is not Director Gunn's first attempt to create false public panic among our Duneland residents and Town Council members, as it pertains to the joint Chesterton/Porter dispatch center, Chief Richardson and the entire Chesterton Town Council are calling for Director Gunn's immediate resignation from her position.' The official town Facebook post also personally criticized Biggs for 'running to the press within an hour or so after the shooting' with his narrative. 'His conduct was disrespectful to every brave first responder who was actively working this critical incident into the early afternoon hours,' the statement said. Porter County Board of Commissioners Vice President Ed Morales, R-South, agrees with Biggs that it is absurd for either Biggs or Gunn to step down. 'For what?' he said by text Friday. 'For pointing out a flawed process? Commissioner Biggs represents the north district and has every right to express his concerns for the public safety of the residents and the first responders who have to risk their lives in these unfortunate situations.' Commissioner Barb Regnitz, R-Center, says she doesn't know enough about the details to know who's right and who's wrong. 'We don't know if somebody's being political or somebody's being passionate,' she said. 'Their facts are probably both valid.' What she does know is that the debate playing out on social media and in the newspapers is making her uncomfortable. 'I'm concerned irreparable damage can be caused,' she said. 'My preference in conflict resolution is to meet in person, and in some cases, you might need a mediator.' And, in the end, she doesn't think the county should force the issue. 'I don't want to get into their business and tell them what to do,' she said. Chesterton Town Councilwoman Jennifer Fisher, R-5th District, stated that this incident was a time for the community to come together. 'Anyone who would choose to kick them while they have an officer down based on false and misleading allegations has gravely underestimated the strength and integrity of our community,' Fisher said in a statement Friday. Chief Richardson said Friday that he has yet to hear from Biggs or Gunn since the June 18 incident. If there were concerns about response to the situation, Richardson said there should have been a meeting to debrief those involved and discuss what could be done better in the future. 'They chose not to go that route,' Richardson said, noting that Biggs and Gunn went to the media. Richardson said he's still open to meeting with Biggs and the E-911 dispatch personnel. 'Whenever they're ready, we're ready,' Richardson said.
