Lee Trawick, Reporter2@riverbendnews.org
On Thursday, May 12, a call came into the Suwannee County 911 telecommunications center; Aniyah Baker answered the call. At first, there was no response, but Baker did not disregard the call. She remained on the line and, after a few moments, she began to make out the background noise. At this point, she realized the caller was in the middle of a kidnapping situation. Then, suddenly, a voice came over the phone very briefly, but couldn't give any information.
Baker tried to gather what little bit of information she could simply by the background voices and the very little information she finally obtained from the caller. Baker soon realized from the GPS information the call was coming from outside the perimeters of Suwannee County. However, she did not want to risk losing the call, so Baker turned to her partner, Melody Diaz, who notified Hamilton County to relay the situation to the appropriate authorities.
"Baker and Diaz did an amazing job staying with the call and piecing together the bits and pieces of the information they were able to gather by the background noise and the little information from the caller," Sheriff Sam St. John said.
The situation was resolved after Hamilton County law enforcement arrived on the scene. All the while, Baker remained on the call with the victim to continue gathering any information that may have been useful for the Hamilton County Sheriff's deputies. On Thursday, May 26, Sheriff St. John honored Baker and Diaz for going above and beyond the call of duty to ensure the public’s safety.