911 tape shows friends aided injured tagger

911 tape shows friends aided injured tagger
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By | The New Mexican
May 22, 2007

Recording details teen's trauma at electric substation

An 18-year-old graffiti artist was coherent after absorbing a 115,000-volt shock last week and spent approximately 20 agonizing minutes on the phone with a 911 operator before rescuers found him.

Aaron Vigil even yelled numerous times so firefighters and police could find him inside an electrical substation off Buckman Road, according to a recording of the 911 call placed about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. Vigil also told the operator he was with a friend at the time he was shocked but said he didn't want to mention the friend's name. The friend had gone for help, Vigil said.

Vigil's family said Saturday that they believe two teens -- a boy and a girl -- might have been with Vigil at the time of the incident. Family members said they believed one of those people made the 911 call because they checked Vigil's cell phone and found no record of it.

However, the recording of the call makes clear that Vigil is the person on the phone. He cries frequently, saying, ``Oh my God,'' several times, tells the operator he's in severe pain and describes his injuries in detail.

Efforts to reach Vigil's family Monday were not successful.

At the start of the 911 call, the operator asks Vigil what happened. ``I got electrocuted over here,'' he said. The operator asks him if he's OK.

``I got severely burned,'' Vigil said. ``I'm in the box and I can't get out. I need help bad.''

The connection goes dead, but the operator had already asked Vigil the number he was calling from, so the operator called back several times until Vigil picked up again. The operator asked him again where he was.

``In a power box,'' Vigil said. ``It's a big graffiti place.''

The operator asked him what he was doing there.

``I was just over here to check it out, and I got shocked by the electric box,'' he said. ``I must have touched the wrong thing or something.''

He said he had been with a friend looking at graffiti and was climbing on the power box when the shock occurred, according to the recording. He said he thought he might have broken his arm when he fell off the box.

``I couldn't move after it happened,'' he said. Later, however, he said he was able to stand.

Vigil told the operator he had burns all over his body -- his face, back and legs. ``I'm all right for now,'' he said.

Emergency workers couldn't immediately find Vigil because he couldn't give them detailed directions to where he was. He asked a few times if help was on the way and thanked the operator often for staying on the phone with him.

After several minutes, the operator asks Vigil to yell so paramedics and police officers might hear him and figure out where he was. Vigil can be heard yelling loudly, but still several more minutes passed before emergency personnel found him.

The operator told Vigil that his friends found the rescue workers looking for him and directed them to where he was.

The jolt knocked Vigil partially out of his clothes and caused burns over 80 percent of his body. He was first flown to University Hospital in Albuquerque, then airlifted to the Arizona Burn Center in Phoenix, where he died Friday.

Police have not yet identified the other person or people who might have been with Vigil, Police Chief Eric Johnson said Monday.

Contact Jason Auslander at 995-3877 or jauslander@sfnewmexican.com.