Tonie Wells Update: NYPD Officers Who Callously Investigated Pregnant Woman’s Death Suspended

Two officers of the New York Police Department were suspended without pay Thursday after admitting that they failed to check inside a Brooklyn apartment, causing a 22-year-old pregnant woman to be strangled to death.

After Tonie Wells called 911 and screamed, “He is going to kill me,” on December 27, two NYPD officers — Wael Jaber and Wing Hong Lau — were dispatched to Crown Heights residence on Sterling Place, Brooklyn, New York, where the distress call had come from, New York Daily News reported.

Upon reaching the potential crime scene, Jaber and Lau, both of whom have been on the task force for about a decade, took one glance at the three-story brownstone building and chose to drive off in their patrol car, instead of peeking inside the victim’s apartment.

“They believed the incident occurred outside, so they didn’t go in,” a source said, News reported.

The body of the Wells was found by a neighbor who ran into the building after hearing the screams of Wells and her two-year-old daughter. Wells’ body was discovered sprawled on the basement staircase with bruises on her neck.

“We found her body. We found her. We heard the baby — there was no adult there. And we were looking for her,” the neighbor, who declined to give her name, said.

“Once you hear somebody’s child crying, you will go check,” the neighbor added. “We’re neighbors. We live in the same house.”

A separate set of cops responded to the scene after a second distress call was made to the police hotline. The victim’s sister reportedly called 911 to report that Wells was “scared” of her husband Barry Wells, 29, because he was “acting funny.”

Deputy Chief Michael Kemper, Commanding Officer of Detective Borough Brooklyn North told reporters that they would be treating the incident as a potential homicide. Witnesses heard an argument and something falling down the stairs,” police said. Barry was arrested by the police on the same day and was expected to be officially charged Thursday.

NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau launched an investigation into the suspended police officers. “The entire incident, including any potential communication and response issues, are being reviewed by the Department,” a police spokesman said in a statement.

Neighbor Michelle Ruiz, 22, who confirmed that Tonie was eight-month-pregnant, said that no outsider could guess what was going on in the family, New York Post reported.

They seemed like a nice family,” Ruiz said of the couple. “I would see them together. She was nice. He was always pleasant. This is a very quiet block, I didn’t hear anything today. I’m still in shock. I would never think in a million years something like this would happen.”

Although the medical examiner is yet to release an official report on Tonie’s death, Kemper said that according to preliminary observation, Tonie seemed to have been pushed off the stairs or she fell and broke her neck.

The police had responded to two other domestic violence complaints regarding the couple prior to the recent incident, both of whose details are unknown.