Twenty-three seconds after Kristine A. Kirk told a 911 operator her husband was trying to grab a handgun from a safe, the woman’s screams ended with the sound of a gunshot.

That information wasn’t relayed to police officers en route to the home until about a minute later, after an officer reading notes from the 911 operator asked the dispatcher to “step up cover” on the call. By the time the first officer arrived at the home — 3 minutes after the officer asked for an alert — Kirk was inside, dead from a gunshot wound to the head. Her three young sons were waiting on the front lawn.

An incident detail report obtained by The Denver Post provides a detailed account — down to the second — of what Kirk was telling a 911 operator during a call that lasted nearly 13 minutes, according to the report. She was still on the phone with the operator when she was shot.

TIMELINES: When the 911 operator and Denver police officers recieved the information

The rapid unraveling of events that led to the 44-year-old’s death and how long it took officers to arrive at the home are part of a criminal investigation and an internal investigation into how the call for help was handled.

It took officers about 16 minutes to arrive at the home, on the 2100 block of South St. Paul Street — about one mile from the nearest police station. Fox31 first reported details from the incident report.

Richard Kirk, 47, faces one count of first-degree murder in the April 14 death of his wife in their Observatory Park home. Kristine Kirk called 911 at 9:31 p.m., frightened by her husband’s erratic behavior and rants about eating marijuana candy.

Urgency of situation

The call was dispatched to officers one minute after Kristine called 911. But a comparison of the incident report and audio recordings of police-dispatch exchanges reveal that the frightening details Kristine was telling the 911 operator — details that captured the increasing urgency of the situation — were not relayed to officers by the dispatcher.

At 9:32 p.m., Kirk told Kristine to shoot him. One minute later, Kristine told the 911 operator that in addition to using marijuana, her husband also may have taken prescription medications.

Three minutes into the call, Kristine reported her husband was hallucinating, and two minutes after he started hallucinating, she said he began ranting about the end of the world, according to the report.

“(Husband) doesn’t know RP calling police,” the report says at 9:40 p.m., referring to Kristine as the reporting party. It adds that Kristine is unsure how Richard “will react to police.”

Between giving details about her husband, Kristine monitored the location of her sons, who were in a room with the door closed.

“(Husband) trying to go into one of childrens room,” the report says about 9:42 p.m. Seventeen seconds later, Kristine says her husband has entered the children’s room.

At one point, Kristine “can be heard telling ‘Richard’ to stay down and yelling for her kids to go downstairs,” according to a search-warrant affidavit.

At 9:43 p.m., Kristine reports her husband is “opening safe to get gun,” the report says. Ten seconds later, it says: “(Husband) has gun.”

Thirteen seconds after that, the report says: “Wife screaming.”

A gunshot was then heard, according to the affidavit from an officer who reviewed the recording.

According to dispatch audio recordings, none of these details was relayed by the dispatcher to officers near the home. It is not known whether officers were communicating with one another or whether information was being relayed on different radio channels.

When someone calls 911, an operator gathers information from that person then relays the information to a dispatcher. The dispatcher then passes those details to officers responding to calls.

Officers can read notes from 911 operators in real time on mounted laptops in their patrol cars. But during a media briefing last week, Denver Police Chief Robert White acknowledged that reading a computer screen and driving to a scene is difficult.

About 90 seconds after the 911 operator entered notes that Richard had the gun and Kristine was screaming, an officer alerted the dispatcher of the developments and asked:

“Can you step up cover?”

By that time the line was silent.

Moments later, the dispatcher called out a “Code 10,” alerting officers about a possible shooting at the home. A “Code 10” call is the highest-level standard alert.

White has launched an investigation into how Kristine’s call was handled. Following protocol, the dispatcher who was relaying information to officers has been placed on administrative leave during the investigation.

Timely information

Spokeswomen for the police department and Denver’s Department of Safety, which oversees dispatchers and 911 operators, declined to comment on whether the information should have been relayed to officers.

But Rebecca Rivera, a criminal justice professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver, says timely distribution of information is crucial to officers responding to domestic violence calls.

“It’s a matter of life and death for both officers and victims,” she said. “That crucial information is basically lethal. If that information is not being relayed to them, they are not making the decisions they would if they did have the information.”

Officers should have been notified immediately after Kristine told the 911 operator that her husband had the gun, Rivera said, adding that dispatchers need more training for responding to domestic violence calls.

A preliminary hearing in the case against Richard Kirk has been set for June 12.

Jordan Steffen: 303-954-1794, jsteffen@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jsteffendp