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911 tape in crash: 'He's got a gun'

Excerpts detail the night a man on a motorcycle chased his wife on I-4.

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published August 12, 2005

	Man dies pursuing his wife with gun (8/7/05)

TAMPA - The male caller doesn't give the 911 dispatcher his name, but he says he is calling from his home.

It is Aug. 5, 10:35 p.m. He has a woman named Sandra on another phone line, a woman he calls "Baby," and she needs help, he says.

Sandra is driving down Interstate 4 in her black Cadillac Escalade. Her husband is chasing her on his motorcycle, the caller tells the dispatcher. Her husband has a gun and he is pointing it at her, the caller says. Sandra is scared.

Here are excerpts of the 18-minute 911 call released Thursday by Tampa police. They continue to investigate the Aug. 5 chase, which spared Sandra George any injuries but ended in the death of her husband, 48-year-old Curtis Lee George:

CALLER TO 911: Hello? Yeah, I have a young lady on Interstate 4.

CALLER TO GEORGE: Where are you, girl? Where are you? Where?

SANDRA: I'm near the casino, I-4.

CALLER TO 911: She's near the casino, I-4. A man with a gun is trying to shoot her.

911: Sir, stay on the line for Florida Highway Patrol.

CALLER TO 911: Please!

CALLER TO GEORGE: Baby, keep driving. Keep driving, girl. (She is heard in the background, crying. Another dispatcher comes on.)

CALLER TO 911: She's right past the casino. She should be just past Orient Road. She's in a black Escalade. He's on a motorcycle. He's got a gun. He's her husband. He's waving a gun at her, ma'am. And she's afraid. She's in fear of her life. He's waiting to kill her, okay?

Sandra George continues driving along I-4 toward southbound Interstate 275. She tells the caller that her husband is waving the gun at her, cutting in front of her to make her stop the car. She keeps going.

CALLER TO SANDRA GEORGE: Baby, baby, just keep driving, okay? They're sending deputies. Sandra, you hear me?

GEORGE TO CALLER: He's calling me every name in the book. . . . He's telling me to pull over.

911 TO CALLER: Tell her not to pull over.

CALLER TO 911: I told her that when she left the house. He's been chasing her since Seffner.

Dispatchers send Tampa police officers to the Best Buy parking lot off Dale Mabry Highway. George gets off the highway to meet them there.

GEORGE TO CALLER: He's gonna shoot me because he sees the police! I bet he's gonna shoot me now!

CALLER TO GEORGE: Baby, just keep driving.

When her husband continues to chase her, Officer Mike Stout maneuvers his car in between the Escalade and motorcycle. Curtis George speeds away.

CALLER TO 911: The police is chasing him now. Where can she go to feel safe?

911 TO CALLER: How far away from home is she?

CALLER TO 911: She can't go home, ma'am. It's her husband.

911 TO CALLER: Okay, who are you to her?

CALLER TO 911: Ma'am, that's the point.

Meanwhile, at Dale Mabry Highway and Kennedy Boulevard, Curtis George sideswipes a car, loses control of his Suzuki motorcycle and hits a concrete sign post. Police say he was going 130 mph. He dies instantly.

Police have not yet confirmed the identity of the male caller, but they consider him a witness in the case and want to talk to him. They intend to interview Sandra George, who told police immediately after the chase that she had no idea why her husband got so angry and went after her.

[Last modified August 12, 2005, 00:46:18]