“Hey Sarge,” Murphy said to Brown, “we have some of the video over in the van. You will want to see this!”
“Yeah, okay,” he turned and followed Murphy toward a white NYC Police communications van.
As they got close to the van, a blond woman in a tan dress suit spoke “Sergeant Brown, I’m Susan Davis, ABC7, what can you tell us about this robbery attempt? What happened to these guys?”
“Listen, Ms. Davis, we’ll have a full statement in about half an hour,” Brown replied, continuing to walk.
“Can you confirm a superhero stopped these guys or what?” the reporter persisted.
He stopped, turned and faced Davis. “All we know right now is that a couple of good samaritans stepped up and helped, but we don’t know the extent of it all. Let us do our jobs and we’ll fill you guys in shortly.” He turned and continued toward the van.
“The stories are pretty wild,” Davis replied. “I look forward to hearing the one you tell us.”
Brown said under his breath, “Hmph, me too.”
Murphy looked over at Davis, giving her a look that said: “cut it out.”
Murphy and Brown entered the van. Two other detectives were inside along with a young guy operating a video console. One of the detectives had just finished saying “that’s impossible!”
“All right, James,” Brown said interrupting, “what do we have?”
James, the video tech, replied “So far we have 6 camera angles, 5 from the bank and one from the building across the street. This one is a great view of the getaway car. The driver didn’t wear a mask and you can clearly make out his face. He’s dead to rights, if he is not actually dead. If you know what I mean.”
“He’ll survive,” Brown said. “What about our good Samaritan, what have you got on him?”
“The best view is this one, from the corner of the bank entrance. It shows our guy and 5 other people as they’re all walking down the street, over here.” He pointed to the upper section of the screen. “Here is when the car stopped and Officer Taylor, exiting the Gino’s Pizza, yelled at them to stop. He’s out of this camera view, but that’s what’s happening when these people all stop. Then, the bad guys open fire on him and this crowd. Watch what happens.”
The video shows Brian, three women, two men, and a child all walking in various directions, then they stop and look in the direction of the Dodge Charger. One woman and the other man, look over at the cop, then back at the car as all six adults are struck by gunfire, each in succession pushed back as the bullets hit them. The little girl was just behind her father and missed being hit by the gunfire. Everyone hit the ground except for the little girl and Brian. Next, Brian pushed the little girl to the ground and dove behind a minivan. Then, he moved around into the alley and emerged with an aluminum garbage can lid in his hands. Next, he spun a full 360 and the can lid flew out of his hands. The whole move was a blur, but you could see a streak of silver leave his hands and strike the closest gunman in the head. Then Brian ducked back into the alley as more gunfire struck the walls, and possibly him.
Brown said, “What the hell did we just see?”
James replied, “Wait, there’s more. Now, back to this angle,” he moved his hand on a trackpad and clicked another small video bringing it to full screen, then he clicked play, “you see the car and the guy shooting back at the Gino’s as the other officers emerged. Then, wham!”
The block of concrete landed on the car. The remaining gunman was surprised and sprang back from the car. Realizing it was over for the car, he reached into the car for something. As he was leaning into the car, a man in a white shirt approached him from behind. The gunman backed out from the car, turned around and the man in the white shirt grabbed the gun, yanked it free and immediately punched him in the head. Then he stepped back and ran out of frame, toward the pizza shop.
“Okay, so this guy Beckett is the guy who took out the gunmen. Do we have anything showing where that chunk of concrete came from.” Brown asked.
“No, nothing on video,” said James.
“But we do know where it came from,” said another detective.
“Where?” asked Brown.
“From the parking deck, across the alley from Gino’s,” said the detective.
“What? How? That’s too far away to have been pushed off. Is there some construction equipment, like a crane or something up there?” asked Brown.
The detective shook his head. “No, the parking company replaced a section of the deck’s wall after a truck backed into it, on the third floor. They had a contractor cut the sections out and they’ve been waiting to have them reformed.”
“Okay,” said Brown, “How’d it end up on top of the red car?”
Murphy chimed in, “That’s the million dollar question.”
“Scour that video again. There’s gotta be a clue there somewhere,” said Brown. Then he opened the door and exited the van. Murphy followed and closed the door.
They both stopped to look up at the parking deck and ponder about the cement block. It was at least forty yards from the car.
Brown turned to Murphy, “Look through the witness notes. If anyone mentions the concrete, question them again, digging deeper for where that came from. This just doesn’t add up.”
Brown walked away, leaving Murphy standing, staring at the deck. She was startled from her thoughts by someone calling her name.
“Liz! Hey Liz!”, shouted Davis. Murphy turned and walked over to her.
“Susan, you know I can’t give you anything right now, on or off the record,” Murphy said.
“I know, it’s really weird,” Davis replied. “What if I said I might have some video. That would be of interest to you?”
“What is it?” asked Murphy.
“Come on, Liz, I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,” replied Davis. “It’s a video sent to us via the website, from one of our viewers. He took the video from his office. If you want to see it, I’ll meet you at the coffee shop around the corner. 30 minutes?”
“Ok,” said Murphy.
“And Liz,” Davis said, “bring something to share.”
Murphy replied, “I’ll see what I can do.” She headed back toward the van.