Nearly four months after being dubbed “BBQ Becky”, Jennifer Schulte’s calls to 911 have been released by police.
On April 29, Schulte called on two black men — one of which was later identified as Kenzie Smith — while they were using a grill at a park in Oakland, California.
In her first call to police around 11 a.m., Schulte says that she wants to report that people are illegally using a charcoal grill in a “non-designated area” in Lake Merritt Park near Cleveland Cascade.
Schulte added that she wanted it “dealt with immediately so that coals don’t burn more children and we have to pay more taxes.”
via KTVU:
The male dispatcher asks for a description of the person Schulte is calling about, and whether she wants the police to make contact with her when they arrive. She says yes. The call lasts less than two minutes. The call was given a low priority, as noted by the NFD in the supplemental dispatch report. NFD means “no further description,” and it’s dispatcher parlance which means that the dispatcher didn’t seek any more information, according to retired veteran dispatcher Rachael Herron, who worked for 19 years in three East Bay cities.
However, the followup 911 call placed by Schulte about two hours later takes a much different tone.
Michelle Snider, the woman who took the original cell phone video of the incident that went viral, can be heard in the background. Snider, who is white, is also married to Kenzie Smith, one of the African-American men who was using the grill that day. Smith had called his wife to help him out and document the interaction after Schulte called 911 on him.
At one point during the second call, the dispatcher as Schulte if she’s ever been to the local mental facility.
Her LinkedIn profile, which has since been deleted, stated earned a “Doctor of Philosophy focused in Chemical Engineering” from Stanford University and worked for an environmental firm in Oakland.
According to our records, a person by this name earned graduate degrees at Stanford more than a decade ago. She is not currently employed as staff or as a faculty member.
— Stanford University (@Stanford) May 15, 2018
