Someone pounded on the window. They both jumped. “Godammit. You just as well kill someone than scare them half to death,” Tracy growled while sliding open the window. An officer stood by the squad while glancing around the area. “Sorry. Sorry,” the officer said while still surveying the scene. Did he say anything about anyone helping him here? He a lone gunman or what?” Several other officers crowded in around the squad dressed up like soldiers, assault weapons held across their chests, the word “Police” printed on their black outfits. “If I say something, can you loosen these?” McShuster leaned forward, exposing his cuffed hands. “You good with that, Jill?” The officer asked. She got out of the squad and started working a little key in the hole on the cuff. The handcuffs had worked a deep imprint into his wrist, she noticed, suppressing a grin. Yes sir … the little bastard got what he had coming. “Yes, I’m here doing what I had to do. I’m what you’d call a lone gunman. Wait a minute, I don’t have a gun. I’m just here, I mean alone. How bad hurt is he?” McShuster nodded toward Noah. Everyone ignored him.
At this point we know a shooting has occurred at a school. All is confusing. Some are concerned whether a second shooter is on the scene. This happened in Columbine. The police are responding with limited knowledge. They simply don't know what is unfolding. During my career as a police officer I lived this sort of thing . . . over and over again.
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(There are some logistics that I would have liked to see cleaned up--how nobody noticed McShuster's injuries, why he never said anything to try to clear the air of what happened, why the police car seems to stay at the school for so long.)
At this point in the story a suspect has been patted down and cuffed. He has a coat on and the officers do not have control of the scene. McShuster is confused along with the officers over what is going on. Remember that we are talking a situation that is unfolding in seconds here. No time to armchair quarterback. Officer Tracy wants to read the suspect his rights before heading to the station.
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