And a young mother made repeated and desperate pleas for help to save her from a threatening ex-boyfriend.
But her family claims those pleas were ignored until he killed her.
The victim had been threatened for seven months, begging police for help, and fearing for her safety and the lives of her children.
But it came to a tragic end when her boyfriend killed her and then took his own life.
Now her family is taking action against Suffolk County Police who they say failed to protect her.
Eyewitness News was the only station there as Santia Williams' mother Phyllis Coleman heard the 911 calls for the first time.
" My boyfriend just took my car," Santia Williams screamed in a call.
The phone calls go on for months and months.
Williams was trying to reach out to Suffolk County police to arrest her boyfriend Jason Jenkins, who she alleged harassed and physically abused her.
"Now he's threatening to burn down all the stuff and burn down the house we're living in. I mean does that justify? Is that a justification for him to be arrested because he's endangering the life of me and my children?" Santia Williams said in the call.
Coleman says her daughter did everything right, but police didn't take it seriously.
"I feel like they could have done their job. All she wanted was protection. She did everything they told her to do," said Phyllis Coleman, the victim's mother.
"It just makes no sense that Santia Williams isn't here to take care of her own children," said Frederick Brewington, attorney.
Williams got a temporary order of protection against Jenkins.
Days later, he took their two-month-old daughter.
"I've spoken to him he told me that he was going to take her out of state," Santia Williams said in a call.
"Alright, we'll send someone over for you, ok?" the operator said.
Police said give it a little longer, when hours went by, she called back.
"My boyfriend took my daughter and he's not bringing her back," Santia Williams said in another call.
"OK we're going to get an officer over there for you," an operator said.
Four days passed and Jenkins was never found.
Until the day police got a phone call from an older child inside William's apartment.
"On Spruce Street. There's a guy with a gun please come quickly. Please. Please. Please. On Spruce Street," the child said in the call.
"What address on Spruce?" the operator asked.
"Bay Shore," the child said.
"What address are you at?" the operator asked again. ((we took this out))
"3rd and Spruce," someone in the background says.
"Someone's in the house with a gun, I think I heard a possible gunshot," the responder said.