Terrorized Senior Questions Cops’ Response to Death Threats

Portland police told Patricia Geon to leave her apartment while an armed and deranged neighbor was still inside the building

An image from a recent Portland Police Department Facebook post. Like many departments nationwide, the local force is struggling to recruit new cops.

A 70-year-old Portland woman who was terrorized in late April by a deranged neighbor impersonating a police officer is questioning the way the real Portland cops responded to her emergency call.

Patricia Geon, a recently retired hospital administrator, said the 911 operator, acting at the direction of officers at the scene, repeatedly urged her to leave the safety of her apartment while the neighbor, a 40-year-old nurse with substance-abuse problems, was still inside the building, armed with multiple firearms, heavily intoxicated and in the midst of a mental crisis.

The suspect, Heidi Fuller, was arrested after cops debated how to deal with her for over two hours — apparently unwilling to attempt to contact Fuller at her apartment upstairs. After unwittingly exiting her apartment that night, Fuller was apprehended and charged with Impersonating a Public Servant and Terrorizing, though the former charge is not being pursued by the district attorney’s office.

According to Geon, around 6:20 p.m. on April 29, a Tuesday, she’d just returned from a medical appointment when she was startled by heavy pounding on her door. “‘Portland police! Portland police! Open the door now!’” the assailant shouted, “like somebody trying to talk in a deep voice,” Geon recalled. “‘I have a gun!” the voice continued. “‘I’ll shoot you!’”

Terrified, Geon called 911. The sharp pounding — which sounded suspiciously like the barrel or butt of a gun, rather than a fleshy fist — continued for as long as 10 minutes, she said. Geon asked the emergency-response operator is she could hear the pounding and brought her phone near the door, but fearing gunfire, she retreated into her bathroom to hide in the shower.

While sheltering in place, Geon realized the voice was that of Fuller, a troubled neighbor who lived upstairs. She provided Fuller’s name and apartment number to the operator, in addition to sharing her fear — based on statements Fuller had previous made to Geon regarding her affinity for guns — that Fuller was, in fact, armed.

“The operator said, ‘OK, the police have arrived. They’re there now. They're across the street. They want you to leave the building and walk across the street to talk to them.’

“I said, ‘You don't understand, this is not a matter of walking out my door. She could still be standing outside my door,’” Geon told The Bollard during an interview late last month. “I said, ‘No, I'm not walking out the door. If she's standing out there and she has a gun, I will be shot. … I'm not going to take a bullet for a cop. … They kept insisting that I walk out, walk across the street to talk to them. And I refused. I said, ‘I'm not leaving the building. I'm not leaving my apartment.’”

After what seemed like a half hour or longer, Geon said officers entered the West End apartment building and met with her inside. “There was four [officers] standing outside my door like almost for two hours, discussing: ‘What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do?’ … They didn't know what to do.

“They had no idea how a handle it,” said Geon, a Latina woman raised in Los Angeles by a family that included several cops. “As far as I'm concerned, zero idea.”

During this time, the officers made no attempt to reach Fuller upstairs, Geon said, and it was only after Fuller walked out of her unit and appeared, unarmed, at the top of the stairs that police confronted and arrested her. After obtaining a search warrant for Fuller’s apartment later that night, they found two handguns and ammunition, according to the department’s press release at the time.

“That was very disturbing,” Geon said of the weapons’ discovery. She told the officers, “‘I was not protected. Why did you put me through this? Why would you want me to walk out a door at any time? If anything, you should have said, ‘Is there any way we can get you out of there?’”

On May 23, Geon’s son, Kenneth Geon, wrote an e-mail to Portland Police Chief Mark Dubois similarly questioning the department’s response.

“I would’ve assumed that it was the officers [sic] duty to at least approach the building right away and see the location of my mother’s neighbor,” Kenneth’s e-mail read. “[N]ot only did they not come to the building right away, but they hid down the street on the corner. Was this laziness? Were they afraid? Did they not think that my mother was in danger?”

“I am giving you an opportunity to explain yourself and explain the negligent actions of your police officers,” Kenneth’s message concluded. “I would say that the whole department owes my dear mother an apology in the least.”

Patricia Geon said her son has not received a response from Chief Dubois, but that she has since been in touch with the victims’ advocate assigned to her case.

Geon said her landlord is struggling to find the legal leverage necessary to evict Fuller, whose belongings are still in the unit but who has not been seen there by Geon in person since the death threats. To Geon’s knowledge, Fuller still has keys to the building and has a court date scheduled for September to face charges resulting from the incident.

“I was traumatized,” Geon said. “I still feel very unprotected. I feel unsafe. I have nightmares. I started to have seizures.”

Geon said she and Fuller had previously been on cordial terms, and that she empathizes with her attacker, who’d recently been employed as a nurse, given the stresses of hospital work Geon witnessed while working in admissions for eight years. “I felt sorry for her in some ways, because she's got a problem,” said Geon, “but when it went to the extent of threatening my life, that's where I have to say enough is enough.”

In response to The Bollard’s queries, Portland Police Department spokesperson Brad Nadeau wrote via e-mail, “Responding officers make decisions on how to best handle incidents with the safety of all involved as a primary concern. Part of the decision-making process is an attempt to de-escalate incidents.

“In this case,” Nadeau continued, “officers explained their actions to [Geon] after they learned the suspect had left the immediate area. The complainant was uncomfortable with their initial instructions, so the officers altered their approach and went into her apartment. There was an initial concern that their presence would escalate the situation.”

Informed of Nadeau’s comments, Geon questioned how officers outside the building could have known Fuller’s location inside. Although the pounding on Geon’s door had stopped, it was not clear to her where Fuller was as she refused the operator’s directions to walk outside.

Cumberland County District Attorney Jackie Sartoris’ office decided not to pursue the Impersonating a Public Servant charge against Fuller, but added a charge of Criminal Threatening to the Terrorizing charge brought by police. Both are Class D crimes in Maine — misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine.

“In cases that I have worked on in which Impersonating is charged, there is usually some effective impersonating that has occurred, meaning someone has been at least somewhat temporarily fooled or otherwise placed at risk due to their belief that a Defendant is in fact a public servant,” Sartoris wrote last week in response to our questions.

“I am confident that the more serious charges are supported by the evidence,” Sartoris concluded.

Fuller could not be reached for comment.