A woman shot and killed last month in an armed standoff with police warned dispatchers she had two guns in her trailer and demanded to speak with two specific officers who were unavailable, according to dispatch recordings.

It’s clear from the recordings that Marsha L. Mace called 911 herself more than once during the standoff to make demands and warn police to stay away.

“If officers go to the back, she’s willing to shoot,” a dispatcher tells officers at one point during the standoff involving Mace at Mobile Village, 110 N. Michigan St.

The city played some, but not all, parts of the radio communications from the Sept. 24 shooting for a Journal-World reporter on Monday in response to an open records request. More of the recordings are expected to become available in coming days.

But the city has denied the Journal-World’s request for access to the Lawrence Police Department’s investigative report of the shooting, citing an exception to open-records law for criminal-investigation records. Even though Police Chief Ron Olin has said the shooting appeared to be justified – and an internal review found none of the department’s procedures were violated – the case still must go to Dist. Atty. Charles Branson’s office for review as to whether the shooting was legally justified.

Scott Miller, a city attorney who represents the police department, said he would not authorize releasing the report before the DA’s review was finished.

An LPD detective, Troy Squire, shot and killed Mace around 1:23 p.m. after a roughly four-hour standoff. Police have said that Mace came out of the trailer firing a handgun and that they believe she was trying to get officers to kill her.

According to dispatch records, the incident began at 8:54 a.m. that day with a call to check Mace’s welfare. Police have said her mother raised concerns about Mace’s welfare, but a printout of computer-aided dispatch records say the call to 911 first came from her boyfriend.

The printout, which contains a dispatcher’s typed summary of the incident, says the boyfriend had talked to Mace about 10 minutes earlier, couldn’t reach her and heard a commotion in the background.

The first officer to arrive at the trailer, Kresten Spurling, was dispatched at 9:01 and got there at 9:07 a.m., according to dispatch records.

Around 9:30 a.m., an officer’s voice on the radio says, “I got a code 2 (white female) that came out brandishing a handgun. This is after I heard a shot inside the trailer while I was knocking on the door. She came out screaming that she wanted to speak to (LPD officer) Dave Hummell.”

‘Signal one’

Shortly after that, the dispatcher tells officers that Mace has called 911 and warned that she’s “signal one times two” – or armed and dangerous with two weapons. “If officers go to the back, she’s willing to shoot,” the dispatcher says.

The recordings and dispatch printout touch on some of the troubles in Mace’s life: She’d recently been diagnosed with brain tumors, she tells a dispatcher, and her house has been foreclosed.

It also mentions a family member’s concern, relayed to dispatchers, that Mace drank a lot of alcohol, and her boyfriend’s concern that when he last talked to her she was looking for medication.

Officers begin talking to her through a public-address system, but around 9:45 a.m., she calls 911 again to ask that officers stop talking to her through the PA.

“She’s now advising she would talk to officer Hummell or officer (Todd) Polson, but she’s not going to speak to anybody else,” the dispatcher says.

A supervisor at the scene answers that the department is not in contact with either officer, “so she needs to come out and speak to us.”

LPD spokesman Sgt. Dan Ward said Monday that police made efforts to contact both officers. According to the dispatch records, Polson eventually was dispatched to the scene, but not until 4:03 p.m., hours after the shooting happened.

Hummell is not listed in dispatch records as having been at the scene.

Waiting for answers

Mace’s sister, Marketa McKenzie, a former LPD records employee, said she didn’t know why her sister may have demanded to speak with either officer.

“I think she may have been friends with them,” she said. “I’m pretty sure she was friends with Dave Hummell, but I don’t know about Todd Polson.”

LPD spokesman Ward said, “We never did find out the answer as to why she wanted to speak to them.”

Another shot was fired in the home around 12:30 p.m. Police have said that Mace emerged from the home around 1:23 p.m. and began firing at two officers.

Around that time on the dispatch tapes, an officer can be heard saying what sounds like, “She’s at the door,” followed by a word that sounds like “shot.”

Moments later, an officer says, “We’ve got a subject down.”

McKenzie, Mace’s sister, said she does not know more details than what have been released publicly about the shooting.

“All I hear is hearsay,” she said. “Every question I ask, they say, ‘We just can’t say anything until after the investigation is complete.’ … I’m ready to find out exactly what happened. Just for my own peace of mind, I need to know.”