Within minutes, the restroom had become the center of a developing police investigation.
Lieutenant Samuel Price arrived first, followed by a duty sergeant named Evelyn Shaw. Price was a compact man in his fifties with close-cropped gray hair and the tired expression of someone accustomed to solving problems before they reached the command staff.
He stopped just inside the doorway.
“Tell me what happened.”
Daniel answered before anyone else could speak.
“Mitchell attacked me during a disagreement. I attempted to calm him down, and he became violent. He took me to the floor and refused to release me.”
Andre remained near the sinks while Sergeant Shaw examined the cut on his lip.
“That isn't what happened,” Andre said. “Mercer grabbed me by the collar, shoved me into the wall, and punched me. I restrained him after he continued attacking me.”
Price looked at the damage around the room.
“Why are there broken fixtures?”
“During the struggle,” Andre answered.
“And the stall door?”
“Mercer pushed me into it.”
Daniel sat up, rubbing his wrist.
“That's ridiculous. He came at me after I questioned him about the report.”
“Did you strike Officer Mitchell?” Price asked.
Daniel hesitated.
“I defended myself.”
“That wasn't my question.”
Daniel looked toward Shaw, apparently expecting her to intervene. She did not.
“I may have made contact while trying to get away from him,” he finally said.
Andre stared at him.
“You punched me in the face.”
“Enough,” Price interrupted. “Nobody speaks over anyone else.”
The lieutenant separated the officers. Andre was escorted to a small interview room near the administrative offices, while Daniel was taken to the medical unit for an assessment. Neither man was permitted to return to normal duty pending an initial review.
Andre sat alone beneath a fluorescent light, holding a clean gauze pad against his lip.
He had expected anger. He had expected questions. What unsettled him was the speed with which the incident had become a contest between two competing versions of reality.
He had spent years telling citizens that the truth mattered, that an investigation required patience, and that an accusation did not establish guilt. Now he was the person waiting behind a closed door, wondering whether those principles would be applied to him.
A knock interrupted his thoughts.
Sergeant Shaw entered carrying a notepad.
“I'm going to take your statement,” she said. “Start from the beginning. Don't leave anything out, even if you think it makes you look bad.”
Andre appreciated the instruction.
He described the briefing, Daniel's anger, the confrontation in the restroom, the first grab, the punch, and the takedown. He explained that he had tried to disengage and that he had avoided striking Daniel once he had him on the floor.
Shaw wrote carefully.
“Did you threaten him?”
“No.”
“Did you use any language about his race, his position, or his career?”
“No.”
“Did you know he might attack you?”
“I knew he was angry. I didn't expect him to assault me.”
Shaw paused.
“Do you have any idea why he reacted so strongly to your correction during the briefing?”
Andre considered the question.
“The discrepancy mattered. The report says the suspect was detained at 9:14 p.m. Dispatch recorded the first contact at 9:47. That isn't a minor difference if we're trying to establish the timeline.”
“Could it have been a clerical error?”
“Absolutely. That's why I asked for verification.”
“Did Mercer provide an explanation?”
“He told me to stop questioning him.”
Shaw lowered her pen.
“Was that all?”
Andre remembered Daniel's expression when the briefing ended. The officer had leaned close enough for Andre to hear him without the others listening.
You don't know what you're getting involved in.
At the time, Andre had assumed it was an attempt to intimidate him into silence.
Now he wondered whether the remark referred to something beyond the report.
“He said something else,” Andre told her. “He implied I should stop asking questions.”
Shaw wrote down the exact words as closely as Andre could remember them.
Across the precinct, Daniel was giving a different account. He described Andre as confrontational, aggressive, and unwilling to accept correction. He said the takedown had left him frightened and that he had feared for his safety.
He did not mention the first punch.
When Price asked about the blood on Andre's face, Daniel suggested that Andre might have struck a fixture during the struggle.
It was a plausible explanation if someone ignored the order of events.
And Daniel understood how often people ignored the order of events.
By the end of the hour, the lieutenant had ordered photographs of the injuries, preservation of available surveillance footage, and separate written statements from everyone who had entered the restroom.
Andre requested that his uniform be preserved for examination.
Daniel requested an attorney before answering further questions.
Neither request established guilt or innocence.
But when Shaw left Andre's interview room, she carried one troubling observation with her: Daniel's account had changed twice, while Andre's description had remained consistent.
She was not ready to draw conclusions.
She was, however, ready to look more closely.