S.F. Police Dispatcher’s Role Questioned in the Death of Carlsbad Attorney’s Son

William Quackenbush remembers how much his son Scott hated being alone.

But that’s how the Carlsbad attorney discovered Scott, lying beaten to death and deserted in a tiny space behind a gas station near Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

It appeared the 20-year-old college student was bludgeoned after he desperately pleaded for help in an emergency call to a 911 dispatcher who didn’t get police to the scene for 90 minutes.

Since the Sept. 29 killing, San Francisco police have been investigating why the frantic call wasn’t regarded as a top-priority emergency. The civilian dispatcher has been reassigned to another job pending the outcome.

On Tuesday, police arrested two young San Francisco men in connection with the slaying. Siosiua Livai, 20, and Totoa Pohahua, described as Pacific Islanders, have been charged with homicide and bail was set Thursday at $500,000 each. They will be arraigned Monday.

William Quackenbush and his wife, Laura, who is also an attorney, quietly returned home to Carlsbad Thursday night.

Quackenbush doesn’t care to comment about the 911 call, or about the men accused of killing his son. He prefers to talk about Scott, who loved his friends, his cherished 1967 Mustang and the San Francisco Giants.

“His philosophy was one of caring for his friends, always wanting to do things with friends rather than alone. He just hated doing things alone,” Quackenbush said.

“He just tried to enjoy life as it came along,” and was seeking a degree in industrial technology at Fresno State University, according to his father.

“Every chance he got during the summer and fall, he wanted to go to the Giants games,” he said.

According to police, Scott and a friend watched the Giants battle the Dodgers at Candlestick Park before Quackenbush left alone after the game as his companion caught another ride to work.

About 10:30 p.m., the youth’s Mustang failed him, and a passing tow truck took Quackenbush and the vehicle to a closed service station station several miles away.

As police later recounted, at about 1 a.m. Saturday, Quackenbush called 911 from a pay telephone at the station to frantically report that someone was trying to break into his car.

The dispatcher, who has 10 years’ experience but whom police have not identified, reported that the caller sounded hysterical and there was a struggle before the line went silent.

The call “was listed as a B priority call,” San Francisco police spokesman David Ambrose said Thursday. Had it been an A priority--signifying present or immanent danger to life--any police car in the city would have been ordered to the scene, he said.

As it was, the call was classified as an auto burglary, and officers didn’t arrive at the scene for 90 minutes, where they found nothing and left.

The next day, Scott’s mother, Anita Spencer of Fremont, a community southeast of San Francisco, became alarmed when he didn’t show up. She contacted William Quackenbush, from whom she has been divorced for nine years.

Quackenbush and his new wife, Laura, a former probation officer, flew to the Bay Area to file a missing-person report and try to find Scott.

A policeman was with them when Quackenbush discovered his son’s body in a 2-foot-wide area behind the service station. Scott had been dead for four days.

“I asked the officer, ‘Is he dead?’ He said, ‘Yes, he is,’ ” Quackenbush said in an interview with a San Francisco newspaper.

Funeral services were held Sunday, with burial following the next day in Los Altos. Survivors include Scott’s two brothers, Steve, 23, and Chris, 19.

Meanwhile, San Francisco Police Chief Frank Jordan had announced the 911 dispatcher had been reassigned while an investigation is conducted.

“The dispatcher is still working, but in a non-public-contact job,” Ambrose said Thursday.

Asked why the emergency call wasn’t given top priority, Ambrose said, “We’re trying to find that out ourselves.”

At Jordan’s request, Mayor Art Agnos approved posting a $10,000 reward for information leading to solving the crime. Ambrose said that on Monday, an anonymous call led homicide investigators to the two suspects.

Livai works in an auto parts store and Pohahau is a driver for a furniture warehouse. They lived in separate residences within a mile of the service station.

It’s still uncertain what the motive was in the slaying, but Quackenbush leaves open the possibility his son was robbed. “He had some money in his pocket, he didn’t have any money in his wallet,” he said.

Initially, Quackenbush and his wife planned to remain in the Bay Area to attend the arraignment of the two suspects. But that was postponed until next Monday, and the couple decided to return home to Carlsbad, where Scott stayed with them on vacations from college.