Judge: Release 911 Call Transcript

Wednesday, November 29th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

PHILADELPHIA (AP) â€” The night a graduate student was raped and strangled in 1998, a neighbor called police to report a cry for help and choking sounds from the woman's apartment, according to a 911 call transcript made public by a federal judge.

Despite the call, police didn't enter the apartment until the next day, after the woman's body was found. The victim's parents are suing, blaming her death on the police decision not to enter the apartment that night. The city says police must have a good reason to break down a door, and that the neighbor who called was a ``wishy-washy'' witness.

The transcript released Tuesday shows Parmatma Greeley telling a police dispatcher: ``My next-door neighbor, I just heard her yelling for help. I just heard her yell help. I knocked on the door and I just heard like a ... choking-type sound.''

Twelve hours later, Greeley dialed 911 again, after he and a brother of Shannon Schieber broke down her door.

``There's a dead person in the apartment next door. ... I called last night. I heard what I thought was yelling,'' Greeley said.

Sylvester and Vicki Schieber of Chevy Chase, Md., believe the killer was strangling their 23-year-old daughter while police knocked on her door after Greeley's first call. No one has been arrested in Schieber's death.

The night of the killing, Greeley said in a deposition, he and his girlfriend heard a noise from Schieber's apartment.

``We heard a scuffle, and what sounded like a scuffle from Shannon's apartment,'' Greeley said. ``I thought it was in Shannon's apartment. I heard what sounded like footsteps-type sound, and it sounded like things falling over, maybe.''

He thought he heard Schieber telling someone to ``get away from me.'' About a half hour later, Greeley said, he heard Schieber scream ``Help me.''

Then, he said, her cries ended as if ``the air was being choked off.''

Police who went to the apartment said Greeley wasn't that definite.

``From what I can recall, he wasn't sure whether the scream had come from inside the apartment or not,'' Officer Steven Woods said.

``If he said for sure it was coming from the apartment, you know, I'll take the door,'' Officer Raymond Scherff said. ``I would have taken the door without hesitation.''

U.S. District Judge Norma Shapiro made the documents public at the request of The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.