KANSAS CITY, Missouri -- A woman calling 911 after her four-year-old grandson was hit by a stray bullet inside their home got a recorded message instead of help.
"All the call-takers are currently busy...please hold," the message said.
"Lord have mercy! This is ridiculous! I can't believe it. I'm in shock, I'm like 911 you're not answering and I'm in a crisis? This is tragic here. What am I going to do?" said grandma Wisdom Williams.
The bullet shattered the window and traveled into the family room where her grandson Elijah and his brother were playing.
"Terror! Sheer terror, because you don't know where gunshots are coming from. I don't know the extent of his injuries, I don't have a vehicle to get him out of here, and I can't get the people I'm supposed to be able to rely on -- 911," said Williams.
So, Williams called her daughter for a car and used washcloths to stop the bleeding.
"I called 911, I couldn't get anybody," she said.
She then packed Elijah and his siblings into the car and drove to the hospital.
"It's scary. The children in the back are crying, he's still bleeding," said Williams.
Wisdom said on her fourth try, she finally connected with the dispatcher.
What happened to Williams and her grandson has happened to people across Kansas City, KCTV5 reported.
According to an investigation, the average wait time the day of Elijah's shooting was 22 seconds. That is more than double the acceptable hold time, according to national standards. Around the time Elijah was shot, the average wait was a full minute. Someone waited more than four minutes to connect to a dispatcher.
Elijah is doing better and said his five-year-old brother is a superhero who saved him.
"He saved my life like this," Elijah said.
His grandma could also be his superhero.
"I've never felt so helpless, so afraid, so confused I don't think ever in my life. We really needed them," said Williams.