Lawsuit to be filed against Seattle after delayed police response forced young boy to watch father die

"We'll be filing a claim shortly," attorney Mark Lindquist told KIRO Radio. "We're currently gathering additional information, but it's already quite clear; the city screwed this up."

On Nov. 2, 13-year-old Drew Yurek pleaded with 911 to save the life of his 45-year-old father suffering from cardiac arrest.

When 911 dispatched Seattle Fire to the apartment complex, firefighters would not enter the property without police escort because prior reports indicated that the occupant residing in the unit had a history of aggressive behavior. The note was outdated and reported in error. Because of Seattle PD's staffing crisis, responding officers didn't make it on scene until 21 minutes after the initial 911 call, which prevented Seattle Fire from entering despite arriving on scene within minutes.

"The city made numerous mistakes here, but the most significant was they mislabeled Mr. Yurek as combative with law enforcement. He was not. They had the wrong guy," Lindquist said. "Their list was outdated. And when you've got a list, and lives depend upon the accuracy of that list, your list has to be updated. It's got to be accurate. Here, it wasn't."

A source with Seattle Fire told The Jason Rantz Show that Will Yurek would have had a 60 percent chance of survival had SFD been allowed to enter.

"Drew's having a very tough time with this, as you might imagine; he's angry. He doesn't want people to even touch his father's things. There's a lot going on," Lindquist said. "Not only did he lose his father, at a pretty critical age for a young man at 13, he watched it happen. And he knows it didn't need to happen. He did the right thing. He called 911. And the city screwed it up."