Chapter 438

Rogier Supermarket.

Supermarket entrance is still left with a large bloodstain, the surrounding has been pulled up a cordon, the side is still surrounded by people, police, journalists, the victim’s family members, as well as onlookers of the public, the whole road is crowded to the point of no return.

After learning about the shooting incident, Chief Frank rushed to the supermarket at the first time, checking the situation inside the supermarket, in order to avoid destroying the scene, he did not bring too many people into the supermarket.

He came here not to investigate the case, but to stabilize the hearts of the citizens of Los Angeles.

Frank turned around in the supermarket, two thick eyebrows tightly wrinkled together, the original serious face has more than a few points of heavy.

He walked out of the supermarket, and the crowd of onlookers immediately stirred.

A female reporter shouted, “Chief Frank, I’m a reporter from NBC TV, may I ask if the police have caught the murderer?”

Another black male reporter asked, “Chief Frank, may I ask how many people were killed in this shooting?”

“Chief Frank, the citizens of Los Angeles are panicking right now, can you say a few words?”

Frank stopped and spoke in a heavy tone, “I’m sorry about this incident, everyone doesn’t want this to happen.

I will send my most elite police force to investigate this case and catch that gunman as fast as possible.

Let L.A. return to its former tranquility and give the victims and families an explanation.

No matter who the murderer is, as long as he dares to kill someone in Los Angeles, he will be sanctioned by the law.”

The black male reporter asked again, “Chief Frank, there are rumors that this is a massacre against black people, what do you think?”

“The case has just occurred and has not yet been investigated, however, it is true that the victims are predominantly of African descent.

What I want to say is that both blacks and whites are God’s children and should not be treated this way.

So, I ask the citizens of Los Angeles to pray for them and give strength to their families and friends who are drowning in grief.” As Frank finished speaking, sporadic applause rang out around him.

By now, Squadron One had also arrived on the scene.

Blackie came up to Luke and whispered, “That was a great speech, I wouldn’t have been able to say something like that.”

Jackson laughed, “That’s why you’re not the Chief.”

Blacky responded lightly, “Rookie.”

Luke ignored the two fighting and swept his eyes around, the crowd was now bigger than the one in the supermarket, and it would be a real massacre if the suspects killed back.

He felt that the Chief’s speech should be over, it wasn’t a good opportunity to show his proximity to the people.

Frank seemed to realize this as well and ended his speech, ready to turn and leave.

Just then, a black woman rushed over, “Chief Frank, please don’t go.”

“Can I help you? Ma’am.”

The black woman rushed outside the police line, her face showing an anxious look, and somewhat incoherently shouted, “I’m a black mother, I ran out of olive oil, and while making breakfast ……

My son went to the supermarket to buy olive oil …… now has not returned.

I …… I hope you can find him.”

Frank stopped and looked at the woman, alarmed by her worry, and said soothingly, “What is your son’s name, ma’am?”

“Antoine Powell.”

“What is your name?”

“Sasha Powell, I’m a single mother, I can’t live without Antoine …… oooh ……” the black woman whimpered.

In the face of this situation, any more comfort is just empty words, Frank eyes scanning around, waving at Luke who is not far away.

Luke walked closer, “Chief Frank.”

“You should have heard what this lady said, his son is missing and needs the police’s help.”

Luke said, “I’ll do what I can.”

Frank added to the black woman aside, “Ma’am, this is the Captain of the Robbery and Murder Division of the Detective Bureau and one of the best detectives in Los Angeles.

You can tell him about your son’s situation and I’m sure he’ll be able to resolve it properly.”

Luke made a gesture of invitation, “Ma’am, please come with me, we need to talk privately.”

Frank turned to the crowd, “Gentlemen, that’s all for today’s interview, thank you.”

Frank finished by taking a few quick steps to catch up with Luke and patted him on the shoulder, “Luke, you’re in charge of this shooting.

If you need backup contact both me and Reed, you know my number.”

Luke nodded, “I will.”

Frank left the scene with several officers.

The lieutenant looked at the scene in front of him and admitted he was a little envious.

He was also the best police officer in Los Angeles, he had the ability and experience, otherwise, he wouldn’t have been rehired at such an old age.

It was said that when one got older, one would look away a bit, and one’s temper would get better and better, so why hadn’t he changed?

Sometimes he didn’t like his temper either.

He has also thought about changing it.

However, when it came to the critical moment, he couldn’t help it and didn’t want to.

The vice squad let out a somewhat feeble sigh, forget it, let it be, even if he changed now, no one would believe it.

In fact, even he himself didn’t believe it.

The trust of both Reed and Frank was kind of a pressure for Luke.

Frank handed this black woman over to himself in front of the reporters and many citizens, so Luke would have to inquire about it himself.

Luke looked at the black woman and asked the other party’s name again, “Ma’am, what’s your name?”

“Sasha Powell.”

“Ma’am, do you live around here?”

“Yes, just live in the Antoine neighborhood on the east side, just two blocks from here.”

Luke was somewhat impressed with the name, “What is your son’s name?”

“Antoine Powell.”

“He has the same name as the neighborhood.”

“Yes, we’ve lived in this neighborhood since he was born, it’s the first and only house I’ve ever bought, and it has special meaning for us.”

Sasha Powell’s voice was a little anxious and choked up, “This morning, I ran out of olive oil while I was cooking and my son came out to buy olive oil but never went back.

At first I thought he was being playful, but then I watched the news and realized there had been a shooting here, and I rushed right over.”

“Are you sure he came to this supermarket?”

“Yes, we usually come to this supermarket to shop.”

“How old is your son?”

“He is ten years old.”

“How long has he been missing and exactly when did he leave the house?”

“About thirty minutes past seven in the morning.

This supermarket is the earliest to open in the neighborhood, and it’s open every day after seven o’clock, so their business is good, and their prices are cheaper, and they often do events, so the surrounding neighbors come here to buy things.”

Luke made a note in his book that it opened at seven thirty, which was really uncommon in Los Angeles, and in a black neighborhood.

“Did your son bring his cell phone?”

“No, I didn’t want him to have a cell phone too early ……

Jesus Christ, I regret it now, I should have gotten him a cell phone.”

“Do you have a picture of him?”

“Yes, I have a picture of him.” Sasha Powell rushed to his cell phone and flipped through the pictures.

Luke looked at the photo on his phone and took a picture of it with his hand, “Ma’am, say your contact information, and we’ll be the first to notify you when we have news about your son.”

Sasha Powell handed Luke a business card, “I’m not going anywhere, I’ll just wait here.”

Luke said to the female police officer on the side, “Take this lady to the side to rest for a while.”

“YES, Sir.”

Luke sent the boy’s picture into the chat group.

Jackson stared intently at the photo and sighed, “He might be one of the victims …… He’s still just a kid.

I’m going to catch that asshole myself.”

Luke also felt that there was such a possibility, “Jackson, go collect and verify all the victims’ information, I want to know their details.”

“Ramon Jenny, you guys go and visit the surrounding citizens and look for witnesses.”

“The others follow me into the scene to investigate.”

“YES, Sir.”

In fact, the entrance of the supermarket was already a murder scene, the gunman shot three people right in front of the supermarket, at this time, there were still traces of blood in front of the supermarket, but the victims could no longer be seen.

Either they had already been sent to the hospital for treatment, or they had already become a corpse to be carried away.

Luke searched around the entrance of the supermarket, saw a car surrounded by a police cordon, and asked Xiao Hei on the side, “Is that the car driven by the shooter?”

Although Blackie had seen the entire live broadcast, he had not seen the full picture of the car, and only knew that the suspect was driving a Honda sedan, and said, “Judging from the brand of the car and its location, it’s probably the car driven by the shooter.”

Luke walked inside the car to look around, it was a black Honda, he briefly searched it and found no identification or valuable clues, “Porter, check on this car and let me know in a bit.”

“YES, Sir.”

Luke followed the direction of the car towards the supermarket, as if he was repeating the gunman’s killing trajectory.

Blackie added from the side, “The murderer was very ruthless, shooting several times at the people at the entrance of the supermarket, and then directly entered the supermarket.”

Luke nodded and also entered the supermarket.

He was not unfamiliar with this supermarket, he had already seen it on live broadcasts and the news before, but this sense of reality and impact was much greater, the pushed over shelves scattered goods all over the place, accompanied by the strong smell of blood and the corpses that had fallen in a pool of blood.

Those on the scene were used to seeing killings and corpses, but this widespread public slaughter was still very shocking.

Luke had a thought in his head, could the shooter be a patient who ran out of some mental hospital or had a history of severe mental illness, a normal person couldn’t do such a thing.

Do not say kill, is replaced by common chickens and dogs, ordinary people are also very difficult to start.

Luke looked towards the camera on the roof that was damaged by the gunshot, never mind if this person is mentally ill, there should be no problem with his IQ.

Not far away the voice of the lieutenant rang out, “Luke, I’ve got something on my side.”

Luke looked at the voice, the vice squad was standing by a row of tin lockers, the top lockers were smaller, the bottom row was larger, one of the lockers was opened and contained a bunch of equipment.

The lieutenant crouched down and took things out one by one, two rifles, a pistol, body armor, gloves, a helmet, a skull mask, a black jacket and a pair of black pants, these items crowded the lockers to overflowing.

The lieutenant said, “These would be the gunman’s gear, he most likely took it off and escaped pretending to be a regular guest.”

Luke said, “The shooter wasn’t driving the car he was in earlier, and likely had other means of transportation.”

The lieutenant clasped his left hand to his chest and rubbed his chin with his right hand, “I think it’s necessary to look to verify the identity of every guest who fled the supermarket.”

Luke casually said, “I’ll leave that task to you.”

This direction of investigation was fine, and if one was lucky, it was indeed possible to find the shooter’s whereabouts.

However, the investigation process would have some difficulties, firstly, the gunman entered the supermarket heavily armed, wrapped tightly from head to toe, no one knew his real face.

Secondly, the gunman deliberately broke the camera so that the police could not look for him through the surveillance.

Thirdly, there was panic around the supermarket at the time, customers were taking advantage of the chaos to escape, and many people’s memories are confused in that kind of crisis situation.

Summing up, it might take some time to line up this shooter.

Luke also checked the gunman’s equipment, the gunman was wearing gloves and left no fingerprints, and there were no special marks on the equipment, he could only hand them over to the tech team to deal with, and perhaps make new discoveries.

Luke continued to survey in the supermarket, the supermarket is divided into the upper and lower floors, about two thousand square meters, coupled with a lot of goods, the scene is relatively messy, and surveying the scene is also a big project.

There are several on-the-spot death of the victim’s body is still in place, a dead so many people forensic doctors are also too busy, Luke walked to each body to check, there are men, women, old people, there are young people, they all have a common characteristic, black.

With the available evidence and clues, the motive and modus operandi of this case is not hard to guess.

The killer was most likely a white supremacist racist who came to a supermarket in a black neighborhood to carry out a massacre because of his extreme distaste for black people.

Luke speculated that this killer should not be very old, he based his judgment on two points, first the killer’s voice had a hint of childishness, like a young man’s voice.

The second point was that the gunman chose to live-stream the killings in a way that was more like a young man’s modus operandi.

After the gunman massacred inside the supermarket, he dropped the equipment on his body and escaped disguised as an ordinary customer.

Thinking of this, Luke’s complexion moved slightly, the gunman was not found in the supermarket, but the clothes discarded by the gunman were found, everyone thought that the gunman escaped; would the murderer come to a sound bite, presumably dropping the clothes on his body in the supermarket, with the aim of letting people think that he had run away.

But in fact he did not escape, hidden in a corner of the supermarket, the supermarket area is not small, hiding a person is not impossible.

However, this was just a mere speculation, there was no basis for it, and Luke didn’t have much certainty.

But as a case manager, he had to take all the circumstances of the case into consideration, it didn’t matter if he guessed wrong, but if he guessed right and didn’t do it, it would be a big problem.

Luke snapped his fingers and instructed Xiao Hei at the side, “Marcus, take a few people and search the supermarket carefully to see if there are any other survivors or suspicious people.” He deliberately aggravated the latter tone.

Xiao Hei understood, “You think the shooter didn’t leave?”

“I just want to make sure the place is safe.”

“OK, as you wish.”

Luke called to Black from behind again, “Make sure you stay safe.”

Marcus laughed, “Don’t worry, I can’t wait to run into that kid and take him out with one shot.”

“Bang bang.” A sound came from the roof.

Blackie immediately pulled out his pistol and gazed at the roof.

“Thud.” There was another thud, only much lighter.

Luke kept his eyes on the roof and roughly identified the source of the sound through the two rattles, gesturing at Blacky and pointing at the ventilation duct on the roof again.

There was a silver metal ventilation duct on the top of the supermarket, one end was outside the supermarket, the other end was inside the supermarket, not far from the shelves in the fruit section, stepping on the fruit shelves could climb into the ventilation duct.

Luke and Blackie gently approached to check, there is an iron mesh that can be taken off at the mouth of the ventilation duct, but the position near the exit is U-shaped, so it is impossible to see the inside of the duct, the inside of the duct is a bit narrow, it may be dangerous to rashly climb in.

Xiao Hei shouted, “LAPD, we have found you and know you are in the ventilation duct. Now there are police inside and outside the supermarket, you can’t run away, come out and surrender immediately, or we will shoot.”

The ventilation duct was very long, and Xiao Hei couldn’t determine exactly which section the man was hiding in, so he could only use shouting to force the other party to surrender.

However, he didn’t get a response, and it was not very effective.

Luke took off a smoke grenade from the side of his body armor, “Hey, I know you’re inside the ventilation duct, if you don’t come out again, I’ll throw a smoke grenade inside.” Luke looked to the side and said to Blackie, “Go find a cardboard box and block the vent.”

Xiao Hei looked at the smoke bomb in Luke’s hand and was stunned, it can still be played like this, why are you so bad, I like it!

Blacky went off looking for a paper box with his ass in the air.

After a while, the ventilation ducts resounded with a voice, “NoNoNo, please don’t shoot, I’m unarmed and I’m not a gunman, I’m a good person.”

A childish voice rang out from the ventilation duct.

“Then hurry up and climb out.” Luke didn’t let his guard down, still pointing his gun at the ventilation duct.

The other team members came over and surrounded the vent in a semi-circle.

“Bang Bang ……” There was another loud sound from the roof, it should be someone climbing inside the ventilation duct.

After another moment, someone slid down the ventilation duct.

“LAPD!”

“Hands up, don’t move!”

The surrounding officers were armed and on guard.

A young boy in his teens raised his hands with tearstains on his face and fear and anxiety in his eyes, “I’m unarmed, please don’t hurt me! Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!”

Luke had seen the boy’s picture and asked, “What’s your name?”

“Antoine Powell.”

“What is your mother’s name?”

“Sasha Powell.”

“Why are you at the supermarket?”

“I’m here to buy olive oil.”

All matched up, Luke whispered reassuringly, “You don’t have to be nervous, the shooter is no longer in the supermarket. We’re the police and we’re here to save you.”

Antoine Powell nodded hastily, with a sob, “I need to find my mom ……”

“Sure.” Luke beckoned over Xiao Hei and whispered, “Search him, then take him to his mother, you’re in charge of making a statement.”

Blackie glanced at Antoine Powell, “I got it.”