The area between the two houses is where a Coquille man, 57-year-old Carl T. Foster, was arrested. Injuries were sustained during the arrest by two officers from the Coquille Police Department. The house on the left is where Foster was living. - World Photo by Madeline Steege

More than two weeks have passed since the arrest that morning in Coquille, which dramatically changed the lives of Carl T. Foster; his daughter, Kaycee Faught; and Coquille police Officers James Bryant and Chris Webley.

Now, with the release of the radio and 911 calls from the incident, the public can hear the actual events as they happened.

On Jan. 12, Officers Bryant and Webley went to a house on East Third Street in Coquille to question Foster in connection with a criminal mischief complaint filed the day before. Coquille Police Chief Michael Reaves said a woman had accused Foster of following her and Foster’s ex-girlfriend as they left in a car from the man’s house on Shelley Lane, blocking them with his truck and smashing the car’s windshield with a hammer.

A press release from the Coos County District Attorney’s Office indicated that Foster resisted arrest; that the officers pulled him to the ground, each grabbing one of his arms. Then, the officers noticed Foster wasn’t breathing and had gone limp. Foster was eventually life-flighted to Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene, where he underwent surgery to a fractured vertebra.  

On Wednesday, at the request of The World, officials at the Coos Bay Police Department released three audio recordings of the Foster incident. One is of the original 911 criminal mischief call on Jan. 11. The other two recordings center on the actual incident: One is of the radio traffic between a dispatcher and officers at the scene during the arrest. The other is of dialogue between medical crews and a dispatcher.

According to a Coos Bay Police press log, the original criminal mischief call to 911 from Lucile Phillips, 80, of Coquille, came in at about 12:50 p.m., Jan. 11.

On the tape, Phillips said a man had stopped his truck in front of her car as she drove with her passenger on Shelley Lane.

After the man stopped on the roadway, he tried to get into her car, she said.

“We had the car locked and we wouldn’t open the door,” Phillips said on the tape.

The man went back to his truck and grabbed a hammer, she recounted.

“So he went back to his car and got a hammer and pounded the windshield out,” she said.

Phillips described her attacker as an older white man with gray hair. The dispatcher told Phillips she would send out an officer to speak with her.

At 9 a.m., the next day, Bryant and Webley arrived at the house where Foster was house-sitting. The tape reveals that after their arrival, an unidentified officer called dispatch to request medical assistance. Then, a second officer called and requested immediate help.

“If you could expedite, he’s not breathing,” the officer said.

While officers worked at the scene, at about 9:09 a.m., the dispatcher paged crews from Coquille Medic One to go to the home.

“... Request you respond to 440 East Third Street. Officers on the scene at that location advising they need medical ASAP,” the dispatcher said.

The dispatcher asked officers at the home to provide more information on the nature of the medical emergency.  An unidentified officer told the dispatcher that Foster “attacked us, we took him to the ground, and he’s not breathing. Saying there is pain in the chest. There is no obstruction of the airway.”

The dispatcher then passed the information on to medical crews. They arrived at the house and told the dispatcher they were taking Foster to Coquille Valley Hospital, arriving there at 9:27 a.m. Complete transcripts of the recordings are printed in sidebars accompanying this story.

Faught, of Yakima, Wash., remains in Eugene, at her father’s bedside. She said he had been moved to the fourth floor ICU Wednesday and has shown some small improvements. He is still on a ventilator and isn’t communicating much, but he is no longer on blood medication to regulate his heart rate, she said, adding this is a relief because his heart had stopped several times, causing quite a scare.

“That’s just part of the injury. It’s almost like your whole body is crazy,” Faught said, adding her dad recently started physical therapy. “He’s going on the right track.”

However, the chances of him getting off the ventilator and other life-support machines are getting slimmer by the day, Faught lamented.

As of this morning, Foster was in serious condition in the hospital’s intensive care unit, paralyzed from the neck down.

On Thursday afternoon, Coos County District Attorney R. Paul Frasier said the investigation into the incident is continuing. He is still waiting to receive most of the police reports and documents from the Lane County Medical Examiner before proceeding, he said.  

Coquille Police Chief Michael Reaves would not comment for this story, referring all questions regarding the case to the DA’s Office. A Coquille Police Deparment spokeswoman would not confirm if Bryant and Webley are still on the job.

— Staff Writer Jessica Musicar contributed to this story.

Transcripts & Audio Links