Councilmember: Unanswered questions over murder

February 22, 2012 3:06 pm by Tracey Taylor

Park Gate in Berkeley: The scene of the murder on the evening of Feb. 18 of Peter Cukor. Photo: Tracey Taylor

Update, 4:32 pm: Murder suspect Daniel DeWitt did not enter a plea this afternoon at his arraignment in Alameda County Superior Court, according to an updated report by Henry Lee in the Chronicle. His father, Al DeWitt Jr., confirmed the person his son described as his fiancée, Zoey, does not exist. Daniel DeWitt was diagnosed five years ago with paranoid schizophrenia and has a pending misdemeanor battery case for an incident last year.

Original story: Berkeley City Councilmember Susan Wengraf is to meet with Berkeley Police Chief Michael Meehan to seek answers to what she says are still unanswered questions over the police response to the Feb. 18 killing of Peter Cukor, 67, outside his home at Park Gate in the north Berkeley hills.

In particular, Wengraf says she wants to understand more clearly the prioritization of non-emergency calls by BPD and larger protocol issues about how calls to the police from the community are handled.

BDP did not respond to a non-emergency call placed by Cukor at approximately 8:45 pm on Feb. 18. because patrol teams had been reconfigured to monitor an Occupy protest march which was coming into Berkeley from Oakland. The first of several BPD officers arrived at the scene within five minutes of a subsequent 911 call by Cukor’s wife, which was placed at 9:02 pm, after the murder suspect had begun to assault Cukor.

District 6 councilmember Susan Wengraf: looking for answers

“The bottom line is citizens need to know they have access 24/7 to safety professionals regardless of what is happening,” says Wengraf, whose district encompasses the Cukor home in the north Berkeley hills.

In a statement issued Tuesday (published on Berkeleyside), BPD said only criminal, in-progress emergency calls were to be dispatched that night, due to the reduction in officers available to handle calls for service. “Concerns about the potential for violence associated with the march resulted in plans to allocate officers to monitor the march,” they said.

An offer by an officer to respond to two pending “suspicious circumstances” calls for service was declined “as only in-progress emergency calls were to be dispatched.”

BPD explains in detail how it prioritizes calls on its website.

It has emerged that the murder suspect, Daniel Jordan DeWitt, 23, who, his mother and sources close to the family say is mentally ill, was inside the home’s garage when the Cukors first returned to their home. The Chronicle reports that DeWitt, who is being charged today with murder, was twice told to leave the property. He said he was a psychic and had been told to enter the home to look for “his fiancée Zoey”.

No one by that name lives at the home, and there is no evidence that DeWitt is engaged to be married, according to authorities.

DeWitt is accused of bludgeoning Peter Cukor to death using a ceramic planter.

Wengraf, who had known Cukor for many years, will attend next week’s Park Hills neighborhood residents’ association meeting and has asked Chief Meehan and City Manager Christine Daniel to accompany her. She says neighbors have been badly shaken by the killing and deserve to know details about the city’s response.

Related:
Alleged killer had been in and out of mental institutions [02.21.12]
Berkeley hills neighbors react with shock to brutal murder [02.20.12]
Intruder assaults, kills homeowner on Grizzly Peak [02.19.12]

46 Comments

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  • SaddenedNeighbor

    Is the Park Hills neighborhood residents association meeting open to residents living close to, but not in, Park Hills? 

  • Grizzly Peak Neighbor

    I want to commend Councilmember Wengraf for this.  There have been a lot of people on this site and Patch blaming the Occupy Protests which completely misses the point.  The police were not handling other crimes or situations in progress.  If they had than it would have been very unfortunate timing. Instead they were waiting around for the “possibility” something might happen later in the evening.  I commend the officers (who apparently offered to respond).  As for the command structure – they seemed to have something else on their mind other than public safety. 

  • Tim

    you know, when a 67 yr old person goes outside to confront a prowler at 8:45 at night, you can’t blame the police.  Common sense says you stay inside until the police arrive. BPD doesn’t need this kind of crap.

  • Berkeley Resident

    Interesting point.  I’m very sorry about this situation but not sure why they didn’t just call and stay inside if the prowler was wandering around and not trying to break in or cause damage.  Very sad.

  • Nancy

    My father always told me to never confront a suspicious person and always to give a robber everything he/she wanted. Yet, when he was held up at gunpoint he slipped off his college ring and hid it when the gunman ordered him to turn the lights on in the house. He was shocked by his behavior. When an unusual incident happens we don’t always think clearly.

  • 3rdGenBerkeleyan

     the prowler was trying to get in the house, he was protecting his wife!

  • berkeleykev

     3GB, if the prowler was trying to get in the house and the gentleman was indeed trying to protect his wife, why didn’t he call the emergency response number?

  • Grizzly Peak Neighbor

    I believe he went to the Fire Station across the street for help but they were out on a call.  He was attacked and killed when he returned to his house.

    Blame the victim?  Does not change the fact the police made a conscious choice not to respond.

  • Berkeley Resident

    Not blaming the victim at all.  Just wondering why he didn’t call 911 and stay inside while the prowler was outside.

  • Iceland_1622

    Ms.
    Wengraf :  If you are really serious about knowing the full truth about
    response times in the city overall, you are going to be in for an
    education if you go deep enough and ask for community input.  It is
    *not* unusual, nor has been, to be told by Berkeley dispatch — even when
    you have corralled an intoxicated armed intruder or if someone has
    already told you that they have a knife and are going to “get you” —
    that “There are no units currently available”.  This is or used to be
    primarily due to Friday night and Saturday night ‘crimes already in
    progress’ or a UC student rampage on Telegraph etc. The response
    times can be up to 14 minutes plus in such situations and one has to take
    care of these things yourself and then wait for the backlog to clear if at all. 
    If your in the hills, I would personally recommend this 1lb canister of
    bear pepper by FOX labs as it’s good to long distance of 30 feet for
    wild people and wild animals ( think Mt. Lions ).  They do not get back
    up when hit with this.  http://www.defensedevices.com/foxlabonepou.html

    Again dial 911 first *if* you gave the time.  Generally speaking, the PD cannot prevent crimes in the city and are just here to pick up the pieces and fill out the paperwork and if I remember correctly even on good nights there used to be only one officer covering the Berkeley Hills.  I believe that changed to zero when things were reconfigured.  It’s head shaker and sobering.    

  • Berkeley Resident

    Agreed but in this case the victim could have stayed inside his home and waited for the police.  Most likely the mentally ill prowler would have moved on.  Very unfortunate situation for all parties involved, most importantly the victim and his family.

  • shorty

    STOP blaming the victim!!!!  When someone phones the police because they believe they need help it is the duty of law enforcement to see to it that it can protect its citizens!
    Oh, so the the ‘occupy’ movement was more of a priority!?  Again, another example of the police putting their eggs in the ‘wrong’  basket:  that OH-SO-MENACING occupy movement.  I hope BPD and the city council get heat for this.  This is an all around tragedy!
    Agree with ‘iceland_1622′:  Ms. Wengraf needs a wake up call:  headshaker and sobering, indeed!

  • Vbkley

    Please fact check this statement who knows that this happened exactly as described? Who is the reporting witness? 

    Is it you GPN?

  • Vbkley

    What are the real, certifiable facts?  

    Based on those facts how can our community respond better to emergency needs?Ms. Wengraf has set out a schedule of actions and meetings to answer the above questions in the next few days and weeks.  I hope Berkeleyside will follow up to see what she discovers.

  • 3rdGenBerkeleyan

     His Liberal wife didn’t want to call and jump to any conclusions, they argued about it he wanted to call 911 she didn’t!

  • John Holland

    “The bottom line is citizens need to know they have access 24/7 to safety professionals regardless of what is happening,” says Wengraf, whose district encompasses the Cukor home in the north Berkeley hills.

    We already do. It’s called 911.

  • Gskalx

    It makes me sad that someone was murdered and people are squabbling in the comments section and dare to blame rhe victim. Disrespectful.

  • Sue

    His LIBERAL wife?  So, it’s her fault now?  Oh I know, you didn’t say that, but your tone is offensive plain and simple!

  • John Holland

    Iceland_1622 wrote:

    dial 911 first *if* there is time.  Generally speaking, the PD cannot prevent crimes in the city and are just here to pick up the pieces and fill out the paperwork

    Really? Not in this case: BPD was at the top of Shasta and Grizzly Peak within five minutes of the 911 call, even with the strain of Occupy Oakland. Pretty impressive!

  • JW

    The intruder wasn’t moving on and was already in the house (garage).  Part of his fantasy was that his fiancee was in the house and he was trying to get to her.

  • John Holland

    Tim wrote:

    you know, when a 67 yr old person goes outside to confront a prowler at 8:45 at night, you can’t blame the police.

    Police should have known the non-emergency call was really an emergency. Wait… that sounds ridiculous. I take it back.

  • John Holland

    And, her mistake was not jumping to conclusions. Ironic and hilarious considering the source.

  • hard to fool

    Holland, rather than play the B-Side righteous berater you might read  the Chronicle where B-Side lifted material from their reporting, than you would realize the question of how the Cukor’s first call for service(csf) was classified is unresolved.  A CFS  about a strange person inside a garage could and perhaps should have be classified as a crime in progress, as a possible burglary.

    if you actually read posts rather than make mean and ignorant attempts to discredit people you would have learned that regardless of which number you dial to BPD all calls go to dispatch directly.
    The only exception is dialing 911 from a mobile phone, to reach local police for emergency you need to use the 981-5911.

    Trespassing, particularly when the person is already inside a building on the property should be classified as a possible burglary, especially since Berkeley is plagued by burglaries.

    Just at the last local meeting an very irritated resident challenged the BPD representative that he called numerous times about a drug addict smoking crack on his steps outside his front door and never got a response.

  • John Holland

    We don’t already have 911?

  • hard to fool

     Fooland, plenty of calls to 911 are not treated or CLASSIFIED as an emergency.
    really,  you did not know that.

  • John Holland

    I agree with you that it doesn’t matter if the call comes in on the janitorial line. At the end of the day, the police are responsible for properly classifying the call, prioritizing the call, and responding to the call within guidelines.

    There’s a reason that BPD did not respond to the first call as an emergency. The simplest explanation is that the data from the call did not justify classification as an in-progress emergency. The behavior of the department seems to play out this explanation. It would be illogical to delay dispatch to an in-progress emergency. And, they demonstrated great exigency to a call that they clearly classified as an in-progress emergency. The police narrative appears internally consistent.

    I believe that what you’re asserting is that BPD mis-classified the first call… that, based on the data, it should have been classified as an in-progress emergency with immediate response. You could very well be right, and I could very be wrong. I hope that the 911 call is released to the public in the analysis.

    What do we know about the content of the first call? That is really the question. I’m second guessing myself for rushing to judgement, yet based on the data we have, I only see a non-emergency call responded to in a non-emergency fashion. I’d need to hear the content of the first call to be convinced that police had information that should have done something differently.

    I don’t see evidence that police mishandled the call, because I don’t have evidence of that.

    One thing I’m not clear on: was the call never classified? or, was it classified, and is the classification now in question.

  • Bruce Love

    Apparently the Occupy March down telegraph was running on “Berkeley time”, not arriving at the border until around 10:25, more than 90 minutes after the initial (non-emergency) call.

    http://berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2012-02-21/article/39347?headline=As-Berkeley-Questions-BPD-Over-Hills-Murder-and-Cops-Blame-Occupy-We-Offer-Some-Answers-News-Analysis—By-Ted-Friedman

    Beyond possible problems with dispatch, the command decisions of the day ought to be examined as well.

  • hard to fool

    you ask ” is the classification now in question?”

    bingo, boy do you argue with yourself.

    why not try to stop blaming and classifying the rest of us.

  • John Holland

    One last point I forgot to mention:

    I don’t think BPD thought it was an in-progress emergency, because I don’t think Mr. Cukor thought it was an emergency. Who would go outside alone, leaving his wife alone in the house, if they thought that a 6’1″ stranger was immediately life-threatening? 

    If we ever get to hear the call, my guess is that Mr. Cukor will not sound at all frightened, and that it will sound to dispatchers as if the suspicious person has moved on.

    If I’m wrong, it’s a whole new ball game, and the explanation for BPD becomes more difficult. If Mr. Cukor said, “He’s in my garage”, or, “He won’t leave,” I agree, that is a different story.

  • John Holland

    “hard to fool” wrote:

    read  the Chronicle where B-Side lifted material from their reporting, than you would realize the question of how the Cukor’s first call for service(csf) was classified is unresolved.

    So, I asked,

    One thing I’m not clear on: was the call never classified? or, was it classified, and is the classification now in question?

    Looks like I had to do myself the courtesy of answering my own question. The Chronicle article says that the call ~was~ classified:

    Cukor’s call to police was classified as a suspicious-person report and not a more serious crime, such as a burglary, which might have brought officers to the scene more quickly.
    It is not known whether a dispatcher misclassified the report or whether Cukor described the situation inaccurately.

    It does not say the classification is “unresolved.”

  • http://berkeleyside.com Tracey Taylor

    John Holland and Hard to Fool: 

    On February 21 Berkeleyside published the Berkeley police statement detailing the timeline of the calls. 

    It reads: At approximately 8:45 PM, BPD received a report of a suspicious person possibly trespassing. …This call for service was queued for dispatch…Two minutes later, at approximately 9:02 PM, BPD received a phone call reporting an attack in progress. The previous call information was updated and officers were dispatched within one minute..

  • Bruce Love

    Here’s a question about all that:

    At 8:45 the first call comes in.   Assuming, arguendo, that the call was not misclassified (so was properly a non-emergency suspicious person):

    Why didn’t dispatchers, at that time, put out a call to anyone who was free and not too far away to go check it out?   Non-emergency dispatch at, say, 8:50 might have really made a difference.

    Is it normal to not proactively dispatch that kind of call?  Is it normal to wait until some officer happens to notice it on their computer?  Or was there no attempted dispatch at, say, 8:47 because of some standing, Occupy-related order (as BPD accounts suggest but don’t quite make clear).

    If dispatch wasn’t made closer to 8:45 because of such a standing order, I think there should be some serious inquiry into the command decisions that day and into the command’s strategic approach to readiness.

  • hard to fool

     your point,

    as journalist you might want to investigate how many calls for trespassers were treated as a P1 incident,  you could even limit the search to one month CFS

  • Tim

    I don’t feel like I’m blaming the victim, but there are risks in life, and we all have to decide which ones are worth taking, whether it’s crossing on a red light, or confronting a stranger at night, especially if you are 67 and not in your prime. 

  • BHills

    On the way to my home around 8pm that night I saw a police car with an open trunk and a laptop computer on  and the policeman standing by at the Marin circle, 5 minutes away from Park Hills. There was a police patrol on the neighborhood.

  • 3rdGenBerkeleyan

     unlike

  • 3rdGenBerkeleyan

     but maybe had she “jumped to conclusion” her husband would still be alive!

  • 3rdGenBerkeleyan

     offensive because i don’t agree with you?

  • 3rdGenBerkeleyan

     there is nothing Hilarious about your source more like pathetic!

  • Berkeley Resident

    Liberal wife?!

  • Berkeley Resident

    This statement doesn’t even make sense.

  • Berkeley Resident

    Actually it sounds like the intruder left when the victim told him to (came back and left again) so the husband and wife were safely inside and he was outside.  I’m not sure why the victim decided to leave the house knowing the prowler was out there.  Why not just stay inside or if the intruder was threatening to break in why not call 911. 

  • Berkeley Resident

    “Lifted Material”?!

  • http://berkeleyside.com Tracey Taylor

    Saddened Neighbor: We asked Councilmember Wengraf your question and she replied that the venue for the residents’ association meeting is small so they would not want to open it to the public. 

    However she said that given the anxiety and legitimate concerns about public safety in Berkeley that have been expressed, she has decided to call a community meeting on public safety. 

    As soon as she has a date and confirmed attendance from the BPD Chief, she will let us know and we will announce it on Berkeleyside.

  • SaddenedNeighbor

    Thanks Tracey.  Looking forward to the date and venue.

  • SalMonela

    This is what living in Berkeley’s ‘open air day room’ does to you. One becomes so accustomed to fake delusionals pandering for change, that when a real one jumps out of the dark, you’re tempted to reason with it.