On June 2, 2023, Talija Campbell called police to report that her husband was being held hostage in his car in the Taco Bell parking lot a mile away from Colorado Springs police headquarters.

An hour later, she was one of the first on the scene and found him dead.

A year after the murder of Qualin Campbell, The Gazette has obtained a series of 911 calls from the incident that give some clarity into what happened that afternoon when a man reached out for help less than a mile from a police station, and more than an hour went by without a response.

That day, Talija Campbell called 911 after receiving a disturbing text from her husband.

The text chain she received featured an ominous picture from her husband’s perspective of a strange man in the passenger seat of his car.

“911.”

“Send please!”

He also sent his wife a location, 1570 S. Nevada Ave.

Then silence. Qualin Campbell did not answer his wife’s follow-up texts or calls.

“I don’t know if it’s a hostage thing, I’m not sure what’s going on,” Talija Campbell said to a dispatcher in a 911 call obtained by the Gazette.

Unknown to Talija Campbell, her husband had already attempted to call the police.

On that call, only heavy breathing can be heard on his end of the phone while the dispatcher’s questions go unanswered. When the dispatcher attempted to call the number back, Qualin’s phone went to voicemail.

Working northeast of Colorado Springs in Peyton, Talija began to make her way to the location sent by her husband following her call to police that ended at 1:23 p.m.

According to CSPD, Talija’s initial call to law enforcement was classified as a “Priority 2 — unknown call for assistance.” No units were immediately available to respond.

According to the department, a Priority 2 call represents a

“critical situation and include those that in progress with potentially dangerous circumstances and have no apparent imminent life threat.”

Talija’s uncle Myron Bradford called 911 a second time at 2:09 p.m. after he arrived at the parking lot.

“He’s (Qualin) in the car with a strange man. he’s asleep or knocked out something, unconscious, both of them, and the man on the passenger side has a gun,” Bradford tells the dispatcher.

At the mention of a gun, the dispatcher reclassified the call for service as a “Priority 1 — known threat to life.” Still, no units were immediately available to respond.

According to department policy, a Priority 1 call is defined as, “an imminent life-threatening situation that requires an immediate response.”

“I’m not sure if the man wanted him to take him somewhere I don’t know. I don’t want to say he’s dead, but he’s not moving,” Bradford said.

As Bradford stays on the phone with the dispatcher, Talija Campbell is heard in the background of the call arriving at the location.

As Bradford attempts to tell Talija Campbell not to go near the vehicle, screams erupt from the call.

“He’s dead,” Talija Campbell is heard saying

“He’s not … he’s not dead, he can’t be,” Bradford is heard saying in response.

“He texted me that he needed help and they never f—ing came!” Talija is heard screaming.

“She’s opened the door. He’s bleeding everywhere. He’s dead. They’re both dead,” Bradford tells the dispatcher.

Grim outcome

At 2:20 p.m., over an hour after Talija Campbell’s initial call to law enforcement, the first Colorado Springs police officer arrived. Qualin and the stranger with a gun, identified as David “Guidry” Karels, 44, were pronounced dead at the scene.

Five days later on June 7, the El Paso County Coroner’s Office released a report, ruling Campbell’s death a homicide and Karels’ death a suicide.

Campbell, 32, was a father of two girls.

Karels’ motive for the murder-suicide remain unclear. A homeless-assistance center and soup kitchen were listed as his last known addresses.

CSPD spokesperson Ira Cronin spoke about department staffing and a dispatch protocol that led to the delay in responding to the “devastating,” incident.

As of May 1, CSPD’s force of 48 officers were short of meeting the authorized number needed to fully staff the department. Cronin said department staffing last month was similar to June 2023.

Additionally, Cronin pointed out that the language in Talija Campbell’s initial call to law enforcement is what led the call to be labeled Priority 2. Specifically, he points to where she states that she isn’t sure if it is a hostage situation.

Uncertain aftermath

In the days following Campbell’s death, his family gathered outside CSPD headquarters in downtown Colorado Springs with their attorney Harry Daniels, a Georgia-based civil rights lawyer.

At the June 2023 press conference, Daniels called CSPD’s lack of response “inexcusable,” that he has serious concerns about how CSPD operates, and that Campbell’s case was the third he had taken in an eight-month period involving alleged misconduct by CSPD.

“No one should ever call law enforcement with a hostage situation and have them take over an hour to respond,” Daniels said. “They didn’t respond to an active hostage; they responded after shots had been fired.”

The Gazette attempted to reach Daniels’ office for comment and received no response.

According to Colorado state law, the statute of limitations on filing a wrongful-death lawsuit is two years, so Campbell’s family has a year remaining if they choose to take legal action.

Gazette reporters Savannah Eller and Zachary Dupont contributed to this report.