911 Dispatcher Killed in Crash as Husband Hears Report on Scanner

A 911 dispatcher in Minnesota was killed in a wrong-way crash as her husband unknowingly listened to the report on a police scanner in their home.

Jenna Bixby, 30, of Nowthen, Minnesota, was killed on Highway 252 in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park, Minneapolis after a suspected drunk driver drove the wrong way and collided with her Hyundai Elantra, CBS Minnesota reports. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Her husband, Daniel Bixby, had been at home at the time of the crash, listening to emergency dispatch audio of the crash from a police scanner in his home. An officer at the scene of the 8 p.m. crash said over the scanner that she was “not breathing, unresponsive.” Bixby did not know that the crash involved his wife until about two hours later, when State Patrol troopers arrived at Bixby’s house to deliver the news.

“A few of us were listening at the same time last night and messaging back and forth,” Andrew Williams, who heads two online scanner monitoring groups in the area, told the Star Tribune. “Maybe two hours later, Dan sent a message on the board that troopers came and told him it was his wife. Yeah, it’s tough.”

“MPLS Emergency Comms staff work 24/7 to keep ppl safe. As a 911 Dispatcher, Jenna Bixby did so for yrs. That’s what she was going to do yesterday when her life was tragically taken. My thoughts are w her family friends&colleagues mourning her loss. She was an extraordinary person,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a tweet.

The wrong-way driver, retired minister Richard Shaka, 72, suffered life-threatening injuries in the crash and was listed in critical condition at the hospital as of Sunday.

It is believed that alcohol consumption was a factor in the collision, as a state patrol trooper reported being able to smell alcohol on Shaka. While Shaka hasn’t yet been charged, police said they plan to seek a charge of criminal vehicular homicide.