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The voices of the women are panicked.
“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. We’re really sorry,” the caller says in a 911 recording released Thursday by the regional emergency communications center for the Charlottesville area.
The caller was one of three women confronted by plainclothes Alcoholic Beverage Control agents at about 10:15 p.m. April 11 outside the Harris Teeter store in the Barracks Road Shopping Center.
Agents suspected one of the women was underage and carrying a case of beer, ABC said. Instead, it was LaCroix sparkling water. The women said they didn’t know the agents were officers. Six agents closed in at the height of the incident. One drew a gun.
Frightened, University of Virginia student Elizabeth Daly, 20, drove her and her roommates out of the lot, grazing two agents with her SUV, according to court records.
None was hurt, but that netted Daly a night in jail on charges that were withdrawn more than two months later. The case has cast ABC into a storm of scrutiny since word of it broke in The Daily Progress a week ago.
ABC officials said last week they are reviewing the incident for a second time. The frantic call, placed from the SUV as the women drove off planning to find a police station, helped spur prosecutors to drop the case.
“We are surrounded by, like, six people,” the caller says shortly after the call begins, “and they started flashing what they – were yelling at us, and then, we didn’t know if they were real police officers or not because they weren’t in uniform. And they started holding up badges, but we didn’t look at the badges, because we were freaking out and we started driving away. What should we do?”
At least one of the ABC agents had a gun drawn in the incident. A witnesss said that the gun was not pointed at anyone specifically. At first glance, one assumes these young women were all nitwits. When law enforcement tells you to stand down, especially with a drawn gun, it is wise to do so. The problem, however, is these girls didn’t realize these agents were law enforcement nor did witnesses.
In addition to the 911 call placed from Daly’s call, the regional emergency communications center released a recording of another call, this one from a man reporting that he saw “a gun being pulled” in the Barracks Road Shopping Center.
“I’m really prone to panic attacks, so I kind of drove away,” the man told the dispatcher.
Reached Thursday at the phone number provided on the recording to the emergency communications worker, the man said he was parked about two car lengths away from the women when agents descended on the SUV.
“They came up to the car swiftly and very aggressively,” he said, of the agents’ approach. “I was close enough to hear and they weren’t saying anything about who they were, just yelling at the people to get out of the car.”
Even though badges were shown, the girls didn’t stop for close observation. After all, they had bought ice cream, sparkling water and cookie dough for a sorority fund-raiser for the Alzheimers Association. Who would think that was an arrestable offense? It was broad daylight at Barracks Road Shopping Center, probably the oldest and arguably the preppiest shopping center in Charlottesville. It is almost an icon for preppy-ness.
One of the witnesses in the front seat of the SUV reported:
In a written statement provided to The Daily Progress, a passenger in Daly’s SUV said a man covered in tattoos and dressed in dark clothing appeared to trail the women as they walked to the vehicle. Then a man in a black Volcom T-shirt approached her side of the SUV and yelled for her to get out, eventually drawing his gun during the exchange, she said.
Daly’s front-seat passenger said she was on edge after returning from an event in which sexual assault survivors recounted their attacks.
These young women thought their lives were in danger. They were fighting for their lives. Why would you think otherwise. An initial report cleared the ABC agents of any wrong dointg. I think perhaps someone needs to take another look. Are citizens subject to the whims of law enforecement? Why should anyone think they were subject to arrest from just buying sparking water? Law enforcement can’t just run rough-shod over the public. Why would guns be drawn over 3 college women?
Elizabeth Daly was running on instinct and shouldn’t have spent a night in jail. The released recording of the 911 call verifies that the girls were hysterical. These agents were overly zealous and acted irresponsibly. I don’t care if the girls had bought a case of beer, a case of liquor or what. The ABC behavior was extreme for the incident. Perhaps those agents involved need to be on desk duty until they learn they aren’t cowboys. I would be furious if one of these young women had been MY daughter or granddaughters. They also need to learn the difference in sparkling water and booze. Big difference.
WOW, talk about over reaction! I would be livid if I were a parent of one of these girls! Who the hell surrounds a vehicle, guns drawn, over a case of beer anyway!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I expect I would be suing the state. This reaction was absurd. whoever gave this command also endangered the agents since 2 of them got hit with the escaping car. Actually, the girls did the right thing if the agents had been attackers or terrorists. How were they to know? It sounded like an ordinary shopping list.
How does a person mistake sparkling water for beer? They aren’t even the same color. Before any agency starts playing swat team, it makes sense to be accurate in what your suspicions are.
Criminals like these young females always get away. It is common knowledge that these college kids often disguise beer in pink wrappings to make it look like bottled water. A sharp-eyed agent with a nose for the perversities of human behaviour fully understands the depravity of the situation and will, as these gentlemen apparently did, quickly brandish deadly weapons to cow the miscreants before they can bring harm to others. That the package turned out to be bottled water no doubt validates their reaction – the females were probably decoys for another gang of bottled water purchasers who slipped away in the melee. The only fault I see here is that the agents did not open fire immediately in all directions.
Scout, you are cracking me up these days.
Wouldn’t you hate to be those agents? I wonder if they were all males and if the ladies in question were extremely attractive. That adds more to the story.
especially if the agents were really dolphins.
@Scout
Dolphins?
We’ll never know the real porpoise behind their actions. Something is fishy. We need to get the entire grouper of them and school them on proper procedures. We must get to the trout of the matter and balance the scales of justice. The tail must be told and the episode must be FINished. We can’t wave away this injustice. We must get the seal of approval before moving on. The normal floundering about, like a fish out of water, is unacceptable. The girls could sue and get quite a bit of money, probably to the tuna of a few hundred thousand, at the least. Some lawyer is going to whale on them, and make them cough up the dough and the ABC won’t be able to carp. Those girls can turn this from a crappie situation into great one. Any decent lawyer will beat the ABC like a steelhead drum.
It must be a fluke, having 2 of you on one blog, coming up with this stuff out of the blue.
I am surprised you both haven’t clammed up. Something is fishy!!
It’s the post-traumatic impact of your informing us that male dolphins hit on human females. We’re still processing that. Maybe that’s where mermaids came from.
Back to these gonzo-boys down in Charlottesville who busted the clandestine, under-age water purchasers.
I’m somewhat discouraged that we actually have armed plain-clothes agents staking out parking lots looking for apparently under-aged persons buying alcohol. That they would actually accost someone in that situation, pull weapons (if that’s indeed what happened) and cause the citizen to fear for her life and safety is outrageous, especially on these facts – where the purchase was bottled water. However, even it she had had a six-pack of beer, this is not particularly how I want my share of public funds invested. I can see imposing constraints on merchants re checkin IDs etc., but, at some level, one has to just assume there will never be 100% compliance re underage drinking.
Beyond the insanity of having armed cops chasing young adults for this kind of issue, we’d be better off in many ways if every jurisdiction would just lower the drinking age to 18. I think it would cut down on a lot of binge drinking at universities, probably ensure that less rot-gut got consumed, and would take the taboo out of the product. If a young person is old enough to vote, wear the uniform, and die for his/her country, it’s OK by me if they have a beer.
The very idea of pulling a gun on someone for having booze is unacceptable. I think those dirty half dozen need to sit it out a year or so at a desk. The fact that they ‘thought’ there was booze and they can’t tell the difference in beer and water makes them unfit for the job.
The only problem I have with the drinking is…those damn highway statisics. Other than that, I agree with you.
I seem to remember that Virginia lowered the drinking age to 18 during the Vietnam War – for just the reasons that Scout mentioned. There was much imbibing in the ordinary and occasional skipping of classes. I don’t remember at what point it went back to being raised to 21.
The agents could have taken their youngest looking man or woman and have seen if that person could purchase beer with an obviously fake or no ID instead of what they did.
@Moon-howler
They should be setting it out at a desk at the unemployment agency, along with whomever let them feel that their actions were “proper procedure.”
Other than the agents are in a chain of command–that’s the only reason I wouldn’t fire all of them.
I spend a lot of time in Scandinavia. We might learn from their approach to alcohol and driving. It is simply not permitted. Violations result in sure jail time. Everyone know that’s what happens. There are elaborate taxi systems (lots of 4 car stations all around the metro areas, easily reached by text, email, phone) that will take you home. I’d rather deal with the road/alcohol issues at that end.
Again, we have a patchwork of laws regarding alcohol use and how ‘impaired’ is defined.
The other part of your concern, Moon, is to raise the driving age to 18. Sixteen is probably too young.
First, let just say the dolphin/porpoise banter was priceless, thank you Scout and Cargo 😉
Censored,
The drinking age in VA was changed in the mid 1980’s. I remember because DC grandfathered in 18 as their legal limit if you were born on or before 1968. And yes, I was having a good time in DC as I was born in 1968, just made the deadline! So all the kids in my high school simply traveled the 20 miles or so to DC.
I just had a conversation with my nephew about the legal drinking age vs. sending our young people off to kill and be killed in war at 18. I think there is a huge disconnect.
Did raising the legal age alter drunk driving accidents or was it the stiffer penalties and public education that made the impact. I would guess it is the stiffer penalties.
Raising the drinking age significantly decreased alcohol related fatalities among that demographic. Something about learning to drink and drive at the same time that just doesn’t mix.