Daniel Price: "An inquiry into what?"
Marcus Reed: "The information I received."
Daniel Price: "What legal basis did you have to detain her?"
Marcus Reed: "I thought I had reasonable grounds to identify her."
Daniel Price: "What facts, beyond a general physical description and her location in the courthouse, supported that belief?"
Marcus did not answer immediately.
Daniel waited.
Marcus Reed: "I don't know what else I could have done at the time."
Daniel Price: "You could have asked her name. You could have explained why you were there. You could have contacted dispatch. You could have requested a supervisor. You could have checked whether the information was reliable before escalating the encounter."
Marcus's face tightened.
Marcus Reed: "I understand that now."
Daniel Price: "Do you understand that you had those options before you used force, not just after?"
Marcus looked down.
Marcus Reed: "Yes."
The investigator made a note and moved to the next subject.
Daniel Price: "Tell me exactly what happened after you approached her."
Marcus described the encounter in fragments. He said he had ordered Natalie away from the courtroom doors. He claimed she had questioned his authority and attempted to continue toward the courtroom. He admitted taking hold of her sleeve, although he characterized the action as an attempt to stop her from passing.
He described the moment she fell as an accident.
When asked about the kick, he said his movement had been intended to maintain control of the situation. He denied deliberately trying to injure her.
Daniel Price: "Did your boot make contact with her body?"
Marcus Reed: "I was moving toward her when she fell. I don't remember the exact contact."
Daniel Price: "Did you see her on the ground?"
Marcus Reed: "Yes."
Daniel Price: "Did you check whether she was injured?"
Marcus Reed: "I told her to get up."
Daniel Price: "Did you offer medical assistance?"
Marcus Reed: "No."
Daniel Price: "Did you call for a supervisor?"
Marcus Reed: "No."
Daniel Price: "Did you report that you had used force?"
Marcus Reed: "Not at that moment."
Daniel Price: "Why not?"
Marcus Reed: "I thought the situation was still under control."
Daniel Price: "You had pushed an unarmed woman to the floor, she had blood on her lip, and you had not verified her identity. What did 'under control' mean to you?"
Marcus shifted in his seat.
Marcus Reed: "I meant that I could manage the situation."
Daniel Price: "Did you consider that the situation might have become dangerous because of your own actions?"
Marcus Reed: "Not at the time."
The answer remained in the room after he had spoken it.
Daniel did not react dramatically. He simply recorded the response.
For Marcus, that was almost worse.
There was no argument to win, no angry person to silence, and no frightened visitor to intimidate. There was only a series of questions that required him to distinguish what he had known from what he had assumed.
When the interview concluded, Daniel asked Marcus to identify the sender of the message and provide the original communication through the department's approved evidence process.
Marcus said the sender was a fellow officer named Peter Shaw.
Daniel wrote down the name.
Daniel Price: "What is Officer Shaw's role?"
Marcus Reed: "He works in investigations support. We have crossed paths on several cases."
Daniel Price: "Did Officer Shaw have authority to assign you to a courthouse operation?"
Marcus Reed: "I don't know the limits of his authority."
Daniel Price: "Did you ask him?"
Marcus Reed: "No."
Daniel Price: "Did you ask him for a case number?"
Marcus Reed: "No."
Daniel Price: "Did you ask whether a supervisor had approved the request?"
Marcus Reed: "No."
Daniel Price: "Did you ask whether the information had been independently verified?"
Marcus Reed: "No."
Daniel closed his notebook.
Daniel Price: "We will need to speak with Officer Shaw and examine the message. Until that process is complete, you are not to contact him about this incident."
Marcus Reed: "Understood."
Daniel Price: "You are also not to contact Judge Brooks, the witnesses, or courthouse staff about what occurred. Any communication should go through the designated channels."
Marcus nodded.
For the first time that day, he looked genuinely uncertain about what would happen next.
He had assumed that identifying another officer as the source of the message would help him. Instead, it had created another line of investigation.
If Peter Shaw had sent the message without authority, Marcus would have to explain why he treated it as a legitimate order.
If Shaw had been given incorrect information by someone else, investigators would need to identify that person.
If the message had been deliberately designed to provoke a confrontation, then the incident might involve more than poor judgment by a single officer.