Police got 911 call an hour before Colorado Springs man was killed

The family of a 32-year-old man killed in Colorado Springs on Friday says it took police an hour to respond to a hostage situation that turned deadly.

Just after 2 p.m. Friday, Colorado Springs police officers found Qualin Campbell and another individual dead near 1500 South Nevada Avenue.

But the family, in a news release Monday, says Campbell’s wife, Talija, called 911 nearly an hour earlier to report that her husband had been taken hostage.

“911. Send Please!” Campbell texted his wife, according to messages provided by Talija Campbell’s attorneys. The messages also included a photo of his alleged hostage-taker.

Despite the pleas, officers didn’t respond for nearly an hour, attorneys Harry Daniels and Chantel Cherry-Lassiter said.

“The Colorado Springs Police Department and El Paso County can make all the excuses they want, but the facts are simple,” Daniels and Cherry-Lassiter said in a statement. “This was a hostage situation where Qualin Campbell was begging for his life, his wife called 911, the police were less than a mile away but they never responded.”

A Colorado Springs police spokesperson said the department has an active criminal investigation into the homicide but wouldn’t comment on the family’s allegations.

Campbell, a native of Newnan, Georgia, moved to Colorado Springs in July with his wife.