Flashover Pt. 06

He watched as units began converging on the scene, the ambulance a few moments later. It was hard to watch, Fish leaning hard against his cruiser, his head low as he watched the paramedics work on the injured man while Chips talked to him. As far as he was concerned, it was suicide by cop, but the public wasn't going to see it that way. The man had disobeyed several orders from Fish, and his officer had only a split second to determine if the object in Lexington's hand was a weapon or something else. Likely the public wouldn't understand that Fish had followed his training and all they were going to focus on was an unarmed black man gunned down by a white officer.

He rummaged in his desk until he found his flash drive then walked to the dispatcher's office. "Make me a copy of the traffic," he ordered as he slid the flash drive into the dispatch computer.

He waited while Claire copied the file, then returned to his office. He listened as Fish and Claire exchanged information about the man he'd stopped, then there was a long moment of silence.

This is Fish! I need emergency medical and backup to my location! Fish's frantic voice came over the radio. Man down with multiple gunshot wounds!

He listened to the confused radio chatter as his officers rallied to help one of their own and Claire dispatched EMS.

Fish! You okay?

Is EMS on the way? he asked, his voice strained, ignoring the question.

They're rolling. Five minutes. Additional units on the way.

He listened to the radio traffic but stopped when he heard Claire radio he was on his way to the scene. He was going to have to get ahead of this. He started by calling Rudy's office. At almost four in the morning there wasn't going to be anyone there, but he left a detailed voicemail for Rudy, telling him what happened. After he finished talking to Rudy's voicemail, he looked up the city attorney's number. Finding it, he called Rich Spangler and gave his voicemail the story as well.

"I'm going to go check and see how this guy is doing," Sean said as he stomped through the lobby. As he drove to Ellie Grey Memorial Hospital, he turned over in his mind how to approach this. State law prevented him from releasing the video to the public, but he wouldn't mind stretching the law a little and showing it to a few select individuals to try to quell the looming uproar.

He parked in the hospital parking lot nearest the emergency room and walked inside, stopping at the nurse's desk. "A man was brought in here, Lexington Hags, a little while ago with gunshot wounds. What's his condition?"

"Are you a member of the family?"

He flipped his badge open. "Official business."

"Just a moment officer. Let me get the doctor."

He hovered until a man dressed in pale green scrubs appeared. "I'm Doctor Prashant Deshmukh."

Sean shook the man's hand. The doctor was young, perhaps thirty, and it was odd to hear the North Carolina drawl coming from a man that, based on his name and appearance, was probably of Indian decent. "I'm asking about the man who came in, maybe an hour ago, with gunshot wounds to the chest."

Deshmukh nodded. "We stabilized him as much as we could then medevacked him to WakeMed in Raleigh. He needs emergency surgery to remove the two bullets in his chest and care we can't provide here. He was shot twice in the chest and once in the right shoulder," he said, touching himself to indicate where the bullets entered. "He has a broken rib and clavicle, tears in the pleura, and a collapsed lung, not to mention a lot of force trauma to the surrounding tissue. Fortunately, the bullets missed his heart. The one in his shoulder passed through. He's in bad shape, but he should live."

"That's good news. Do you know if he was on something?"

The doctor shook his head. "We didn't check. We were a little busy trying to stop the bleeding into his chest. If he was, it'll turn up in the tests at WakeMed. He was shot by a cop?"

"I can't comment on that," Sean said.

Deshmukh's face tightened, but Sean wasn't sure of the meaning. "Right. Unless he takes a turn for the worse, he should make it."

"Okay, thanks, doc."

Deshmukh nodded and turned away. Sean sighed in relief. Having Lexington live would help reduce the outrage. He left the emergency room and called Chips as he walked to his car. "Yeah, chief?"

"How's our boy?"

"Hanging in there, but he's hurting."

"Let him know I spoke to the doc at the hospital. They medevacked the guy to Raleigh but they think he's probably going to make it. Also tell him I reviewed the dash cam video and it looks like a clean shoot to me."

"I'll let him know. He's really beating himself up and second guessing what he did."

"Tell him to stop it. There isn't a cop alive who wouldn't have done the same thing, not one who cares about his safety anyway."

"Was the guy on something?"

"Don't know yet. We'll probably know that tomorrow."

"I'll pass that along."

"Claire is working on getting someone there to relieve you and to make sure someone will always be close for the next couple of days, but until we get organized, stay with him."

"You got it."

Sean ended the call and stood by his car. He was starting to feel the lack of sleep, but it would be dawn in less than an hour. No time to go home, and he wouldn't be able to sleep anyway. He sat down in his car and stared at the brightly lit entrance to the emergency room. With a sigh, he started his car and turned for the station. He had some work to do, but he had an idea of how to handle the situation.