911 recordings indicate that a chain of miscommunications delayed the emergency response after the Tennessee Department of Correction’s failed execution of death row inmate Christa Pike.
The first call reached dispatchers at about 8:40 p.m. Sept. 30, nearly an hour after Pike’s scheduled execution had begun, according to documents and audio obtained by Fox News.
The unidentified caller reported that the execution had failed but could not provide the code dispatchers required to confirm the call was legitimate.
The recordings show operators then tried to verify whether the report was genuine before sending help.
Convicted killer Christa Gail Pike listens to proceedings in April 2008 at Knox County Criminal Court as she seeks a new trial in the 1995 killing of fellow Job Corps student Colleen Slemmer. (USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect)
“So we have a medical call for service at the Riverbend Prison,” one dispatcher says in audio obtained by Fox News.
The dispatcher told a colleague that the caller said, “They carried out the execution, the subject didn’t pass away, and they need an ambulance because she’s not breathing normally.”
“We are trying to find out if that is an actual thing that is happening, and we need to send an ambulance, and/or if you need police assistance, or if this is someone that is just basically prank calling or like swatting us,” the operator said.
In a separate portion of the dispatch audio, an operator can be heard canceling the emergency response.
Emergency vehicles arrive at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution after Christa Pike’s execution was halted Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tennessee. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
At approximately 9:03 p.m., a dispatcher said supervisors at the Department of Emergency Communications had determined the report was false. “Per supervisors here at the DEC [Department of Emergency Communications], we have been informed it is a false call,” the dispatcher said. “There is no medical assistance needed at Riverbend Prison.”
A later exchange between a dispatcher and someone who appeared to work at Riverbend revealed that uncertainty remained.
“We got a call about a failed execution at your guys’ facility, and we’re just calling to verify,” the dispatcher said.
“Um … who called you?” the prison employee replied.
“Is there like a sergeant I could speak with, or a supervisor?” the dispatcher asked.
“Who called you? Do you know?” the employee asked.
“No, we don’t exactly know,” the dispatcher answered.
“I’m being told nobody from our facility called you, so there’s not really anything to speak of at the moment,” the employee said.
CHECK THIS OUT: Trump Asked Kimberly Guilfoyle to Resign, White House Press Secretary Confirms
An execution gurney is pictured beside a Tennessee Department of Correction booking photo of death row inmate Christa Pike, whose attorneys filed an emergency motion seeking to preserve evidence following the state’s failed execution attempt. (Greg Smith/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images ; Tennessee Department of Correction via AP)
Pike’s attorney, Kelly Gleason, also contacted 911 to report the botched execution, according to the recordings.
“What’s going on is my client, Christa Gail Pike, is undergoing a state execution. She has completed the stages of the protocol and last we knew from the attorney who is present, she is still alive and breathing and needs immediate life-saving care,” Gleason can be heard saying during a phone call timestamped at approximately 9:08 p.m.
Around the same time as Gleason’s call, Riverbend Prison’s Central Control told emergency responders that they “would have been the ones to call in” but that they “did not make that call,” according to the audio.
But also around that time, a first responder can be heard on a separate recording saying: “Somebody is outside the gate at the prison telling us that it’s real and demanding us to go in. They say they are some sort of state official. I need somebody to get out to the gate and talk to those people.”
At that point, Central Control cleared the way for first responders to enter the prison at 9:11 p.m.
Media witnesses leave Riverbend Maximum Security Institution after the execution of Christa Pike was halted Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Pike was in an ambulance and being transferred to a hospital by 9:34 p.m., the Associated Press reported.
Pike was convicted of first degree murder and conspiracy to commit first degree murder in 1996 for the 1995 torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. She was sentenced to death and had been on death row for over 30 years when she arrived at her scheduled execution by lethal injection on Sept. 30.
Prison execution authorities administered a single dose of pentobarbital, a central nervous system depressant used in Tennessee execution protocol. When Pike remained conscious after the initial dose, authorities administered a second dose per state protocol.
When the second dose did not kill Pike, Tennessee’s single-drug execution protocol prevented authorities from administering a third dose.
Christa Gail Pike is seen during her trial for the murder of Colleen A. Slemmer on March 18, 1996, in Knox County Criminal Court. (USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect)
Pike was taken to a hospital where she was placed on a ventilator and remained unconscious for six days, waking up on Oct. 6, according to her attorneys.
Pike was taken back to the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center women’s prison on Oct. 10 where she is continuing to receive medical care, her attorneys said in a statement.
Following the failed execution, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has paused all state executions pending a further review.
News Media contacted the Tennessee Department of Correction and Pike’s attorneys for comment.