 Deonte Smith, a senior 911 operator in Clayton County, says he was just doing his job and the victim deserves all the credit for keeping her wits about her while she was being attacked and sexually assaulted. Officers say Giles kidnapped the victim from Hapeville and brought her to the closed Starship Novelties and Gifts store on Tara Boulevard around 4 a.m. Monday intending to rape her. Police say quick thinking by the victim of a frightening abduction and assault helped them catch her attacker in the act. The victim instead called 911 and Smith pretended to be her boyfriend. “She explained to him what the perpetrator had told her; that he was wanting him to listen while she was being raped,” Woodall said. The operator tried to talk the attacker out of the assault and sent police. “They were able to stop it right then and there and snatched him right from the car,” Woodall said. He dispatched police and when they arrived, officers say Giles was still assaulting the victim. The 27-year-old faces rape, false imprisonment and obstruction charges.
– A Georgia woman was assaulted early Monday, and the alleged attacker told her to call her boyfriend to make him listen—but instead, the woman called 911. Deonte Smith, the dispatcher who answered, noticed that the woman was pretending to be talking to her boyfriend, so he played along. It was "the most extreme call of my career," Smith tells WSB-TV. "She explained to him what the perpetrator had told her; that he was wanting him to listen while she was being raped," a Clayton County police officer tells the station. Smith got her location and sent police while trying to talk the attacker out of assaulting the woman; police arrived while it was still going on. "It was quick thinking on his behalf. In fact, (it) might have saved her life," the officer says of Smith's actions, though Smith credits the woman's own quick thinking and says he was just doing his job. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution points out that Smith was the only male dispatcher working at the time. "Honestly, I'd say divine intervention," he says. Suspect Robert Giles, 27, faces charges of rape, false imprisonment, and obstruction. Kidnapping charges could also be forthcoming because police say Giles took the victim from Hapeville to a closed adult entertainment store to carry out the attack. (This 911 dispatcher ended up saving her own father.)