Guthrie Police Says 'Text-To-911' Service Helped Save Woman's Life

A new service that allows central Oklahomans to text 911 instead of call when they need help, may have stopped a violent attack in Guthrie. 

Guthrie police said the victim was being attacked, so she wasn’t able to use her phone to dial 911, instead she texted it.

Back in October 2019, Logan, Cleveland, Canadian, and Oklahoma counties began using the 911 texting system.

Read Related Story: 4 Oklahoma Counties Roll Out ‘Text-To-911’ System

This week, a woman texted 911 in Guthrie with a cryptic message.

“We get a ‘3’ and a ‘w’ and an ‘r’, then the rest of an address, and the statement was hurry,” said Sgt. Anthony Gibbs with the Guthrie Police Department.

“The information on the text that comes in gives a longitude and latitude, gives an approximate area of where that home is,” said Sgt. Gibbs.

So, police were sent to that area as dispatchers tried to figure out exactly what the message meant.

“When you click on your phone from numbers to letters, in the same place with the letters we have the numbers which filled out the rest of the address for us,” said Sgt. Gibbs.

That address, 324 Jacqua Lane.

“The victim had been strangled and the only thing that the victim could do was contact via text to 911. Any phone call that would have been made would have been known by the assailant,” said Sgt. Gibbs.

The alleged attacker, 46-year-old Michael Robinson Jr., was charged with Domestic Assault and Battery by Strangulation. 

Guthrie police want to get the word out that texting 911 can be just as useful and sometimes more useful than dialing 911.

“If you’re in a situation where somebody’s in your home and you don’t want to make a noise, don’t want to make a sound, then you can quickly easily text to 911 exactly what’s going on,” said Sgt. Gibbs.