UNDER SIEGE (A Story Of Hope)

by Ciuri Di Badia

  Around her were some curious onlookers, some of whom happened to be her neighbors. A few of them had tried to get the story out of her but unfortunately; all they got was a mere silence. She could not answer them even if she wanted to as she had been withdrawn to a state of her own; shocked, traumatized and dumbfounded. However, she could hear them whispering to each other, prying to know what the police were up to.

  No one knew for sure what was happening; not the onlookers, not the police and certainly not Mary. At least, the latter two knew that there had been a gunshot and so, those inside the apartment had at least a gun. Beyond that, no more details existed. On their part, the police were relying on postulations and suppositions. They neither knew whom nor how many people they were dealing with. They just dealt with the situation the best way they could by way of laying a good plan and putting their fine men forward to execute it. They had then taken all precautionary measures they could possibly take, with hopes that the standoff wouldn’t end in a blood shed.

  With the ground work laid, the N.Y.P.D commandant Chris Henderson preceded on to the next step. He held a blow horn and beseeched the assailant(s) to come out of the house. He pleaded with them for sometime, urging them to save the situation by walking out with their hands held up in the air. And when he was done, he gave them some time, hoping that they would heed his words. But alas, nothing happened, no one came out.

  With that, the police were again taken back to the drawing board. The commandant walked back to his counterparts where he briefly conversed with them. He then returned to the spot where he had been standing and continued with his blow-horn diplomacy.

  In a pushy voice, the commandant said. “Come out, you are surrounded. You cannot run and you cannot continue being in there. Just surrender and give yourselves out.”

  That was assertive and straight to the point. From his voice, it was as if the commandant was loosing his patience with the assailants but still, there was a chance of ending the first play peacefully.

  The commandant became silent again, giving Tommy time to come out. In trepidation, everyone was expecting to see the door swinging open and someone coming out with their hands held high but to their disappointment, nothing of the sort happened. In a nut shell, Tommy and Quinsy remained indifferent. They didn’t seem to mind what Commandant Henderson was telling them. At that point, no one knew what they were planning to do. And since the police believed that there were several armed people inside the house, they wondered what those people were doing. They had registered no movements inside the house; not even with their motion detectors that could determine the position of those intruders, even through brick walls.

  With nothing forthcoming, the commandant continued. “You just have to put your hands up and walk out slowly. Ease things for all of us. Please.”

  He paused again and when he noticed that there was no response from the intruders, he continued insisting that they should come out. However, this time round, there were traces of anger in his voice.

  “Whether you like it or not, we have you by the balls and you can’t run. So, just give it up, don’t force us to come in and flush you out”

  Things were getting tense by the minute and like in their previous situations, the police had to be very cautious and patient. They knew too well that they were at a defining moment and they couldn’t afford to jeopardize their mission. And as for Tommy, he had nowhere to run to. He had successfully run for the past several months but now, the odds were wedged against him. There was nothing he could do to save himself. As the saying goes that every dog has its day; Tommy's day had come – a day when he was bound to realize that legends don’t last forever and that it was time he quit playing games and face reality. For him, justice was inevitable.

  Thirty minutes had passed since the police got to the scene but still, the intruders were yet to respond. Earlier, on seeing that the standoff was becoming unmanageable, the police had requested the SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) team to give them reinforcement. The SWAT team responded rapidly and at this point, they were arriving.

  In their heavy body amour and ballistic shields, they came out of their armored vans and headed straight to the police commandant. The commandant gave them a short briefing before they started organizing themselves. Six of their officers removed their revolvers from the holsters they were carrying on their backs before they divided themselves into two groups. They then joined in into the police perimeter; one group joining those in front of the apartment while the other group proceeding to the back. They then camouflaged along with the police officers.

  The police commandant and the SWAT chief continued consulting. As if it arose out of their consultations, the police commandant pulled out most of his officers, leaving only the snipers. The six SWAT officers then took positions that the withdrawn police officers had taken as they waited for further orders.

  The SWAT team is better placed to deal with those kinds of situations than the police as they use paramilitary tactics in carrying out their missions. By and large, they handle operations that have either defeated or are beyond regular police’s abilities. Those include high risk rescues, hostage situations, and engaging armed criminals. With their sniper rifles, shotguns and assault riffles, they can basically take on a small army, making them the best armed crime fighters in the world.

  Tommy was ordered to come out for the last time. However, he was still unyielding and that called for the SWAT to swing into action. The chief gave his officers the green light to flush those intruders out. Simultaneously, the two teams charged up and got themselves ready to surge into the apartment.

  One cavlon vested marksman went and placed an explosive charge on the door’s handle. He then receded back as one of his fellow officers pressed a detonator to set it off. The charge went off, breaching the door with a blast. While brandishing revolvers, the SWAT officers started moving towards the apartment. They tiptoed in a zigzag manner as they neared the broken door. One officer kicked the remaining piece of the door open using his right leg before they entered the apartment, one officer at a time while the other two covered his back.

  Those from the back used a revolver with battering rounds to break the lock. From a distance, the police snipers were taking their aims through the windows. They had been doing that since they took their positions. Despite focusing their gun’s telescopic sights from window to window, they were yet to spot any of the said prowlers. It was as if the house was empty but nevertheless, they maintained their vigil. The case was no different for their counterparts who were manning the front windows.

  It had crossed the commandant’s mind that, in between the time that Mary made a call and the time the police arrived, the assailants could have used the back door to escape. However, he did not let such thoughts get in the way of his undertaking. He knew that, in due time, all his concerns about possibilities would be cleared. However, one thing still stood out; the commandant had been right all along. He had stated severely that the housebreakers were completely beleaguered by the police and that turned out to be true. In his opinion, the intruders had no other option other than to surrender because, even if they tried to, they couldn’t beat the insurmountable officers.

  At this point, the SWAT officers who had entered the apartment through the front door were approaching the living room. They could hear some frail howls as they got nearer and before they entered the living room, they cocked their guns. There, they found Tommy, seated on the floor while holding a body of a damsel that was bespattered with blood. He was wailing terribly. The officers ordered him not to move as others out the rest of the rooms. However, no one else was in the apartment.

  The officers pulled Quinsy’s body away from Tommy at multiple gun points. They then picked him up from the floor before arm twisting him to a corner where they frisked him all over. However, nothing was found on him. The officers then handcuffed him tightly before ordering him to sit on the floor.

  Police detectives entered the apartment there
after and before doing anything, they observed the scene. Quinsy's body was still lying on the floor, at the same position that the SWAT officers put it when they pulled it away from Tommy. The carpet was covered with big patches of blood and about one yard away; a Ceska pistol was lying on the floor. From the way the body indicated, Quinsy had been shot from the right side of her head and with closer observations, the detectives could see that there were droplets of blood that were still oozing from the bullet wound.

  The detectives took photographs from the scene before putting the pistol into an evidence bag. They then collected blood samples from the floor and from Quinsy's bullet wound and put them in different specimen bottles. A detective wiped Tommy's hands with special papers before putting them in a polythene bag. Those were to be used for gunpowder testing. Tommy's finger prints were taken before his handcuffs were removed so that he could take off the shirt he was wearing. The shirt was filled with blood and so, the detectives saw it as an important piece of evidence. He was then left in his vest as the detectives put the cuffs back on. The keys that Tommy had used to open the door were also collected as evidence. They would serve as an important proof for a possible break-in charge. The detectives then searched the whole apartment for any unconventionalities but, however, nothing important to the case was found.

  The only person whom the police allowed into the apartment was Mary. They were hoping that she would help in investigations but that was never to be. On seeing the bloody scene, Mary was so shocked that she passed out. The police quickly whisked her out for some first aid and after sometime, she regained consciousness. Nevertheless, she was later taken to hospital for further check-up.

  Quinsy’s body was put in a hearse van before being taken to the morgue for postmortem. Behind, Tommy was being hauled out of the house to an awaiting police car. When the onlookers saw him approach, they started booing and catcalling. While some threw curses words at him, others wished that they could lay their hands on him. Should the latter have been given an opportunity to, Tommy would have been stringed up there and then.

  On the other hand, the only people who were having a field day were the Paparazzis and the journalists. They had savored the opportunity the best way they could and as they flashed their cameras, they knew that the story would end up either front-paging newspapers or top-storing newscasts. As Tommy went past them, they jostled for chances to photograph him, each one of them aiming to get a full picture of him. The blood on his vest and pants made the photos even more thrilling. Tommy finally got to the police car and as he was being driven away, some people started throwing stones at him. However the police managed to get him through that and the whole police convoy that was escorting him left the scene. Behind, they left their counterparts calming the crowd down by asking them to be restraint and let the police handle the situation.

  With the sirens still on, the convoy finally made it to the maximum security dungeon where Tommy would spend his following weeks.

  Mary’s house was cordoned off pending ongoing investigations that would take about two weeks. She was however given a temporary residence by the police. But due to the need to take her mind off the traumatic scene that she saw in the apartment, she decided that she would not live there anymore. When the police would be done with their investigations, she would get her things and move to another apartment.

  Word went round the country that the much sought after serial killer had been arrested. It was further stated that he had been caught red handed while committing a murder. Once more, the news sparked off talks about Tommy with the subject of discussion being that, Tommy was finally going to be punished for all the murders that he had committed. Everyone wanted to see Tommy done away with. They detested him to the point of exaggerating what he had done by accusing him of having done so many other horrible deeds. For example, they alleged that he had threatened to kill so many other people, both known and unknown. In addition, they accused him of having a list of the people he intended to kill.

  However, there was a little truth in what was said in some quarters. They alleged that, by evading arrest and causing fear to so many people, Tommy intended to show people that he was bolder than he actually was. But now that he had been arrested, they had no doubt that he would pay for all the things he had done. And for that; some people thanked God, others the police and yet others, fate. However, they were all in agreement when it came to the idea that Tommy's arrest was one of the biggest successes that the police have had in many years.

  For sometime, every one wished that Tommy would get arrested and now that he already was, they all wanted to see him sentenced to nothing short of the gallows.

  Detective Allen, the man who was handling Tommy's previous cases, came back into the picture. He took over the case just after he learnt that Tommy had been arrested. In his opinion, that was a straight forward case that didn’t require a lot of evidences to convince the jury beyond any reasonable doubt that Tommy had actually killed Quinsy. Despite the fact that forensic results for gunpowder and fingerprints tests on Tommy were yet to be released, the incident at Mary's house could be evidence enough to hold a case. That is; Tommy was alone in the house with Quinsy, Mary had heard a gunshot, and later the police find him embracing Quinsy's body. Those circumstances, coupled with the evidences from his previous murder cases constituted his bounty to the law.

  Det. Allen had at a time warned Quinsy of the animosity of her former boy friend. He had for long feared that Tommy would want to hurt Quinsy. But, with his fears now confirmed, there was nothing more he could do other that put Tommy away for good so that he could no longer hurt any other woman.

  After Quinsy’s interment, Tommy’s previous two first degree murder cases were re-opened afresh. Those were to run concurrently with his recent murder case and other minor charges that included: Holding a firearm illegally, evading arrest and breaking into his cousin’s house. However, the last charge was later dropped with reasons that Tommy had lived in the house earlier and that his cousin had not restricted him from going there.

  Five sworn complaints were filed against Tommy and several days later, he appeared in court to determine his plea. He pleaded not guilty to all those charges and so, a hearing was set. And when the day of the trial came, the state presented its evidence and called some of its witnesses to testify against him. After the state counsel was done presenting each witness, Tommy's attorney would then cross examine them. And from the way he was questioning them, one could see that the case had taken a toll on him.

  All circumstantial evidences were pointing at Tommy. However, as his lawyer stated, the ballistic tests result had turned out negative. Etymologically, that meant that there was a big possibility that Tommy was not the one who had fired the deadly shot. But, on the other hand, the prosecution argued that he could have washed his hands after shooting or rather used gloves to hold the pistol. That was deemed as logical since Tommy’s fingerprints did not appear on the pistol. Nonetheless, no gloves were ever found in Mary’s house and that ruled out the possibility that he used them to hold the pistol. The defense was then left with the option of insisting that Tommy could have washed his hands after shooting Quinsy and that kept their arguments afloat.

  In all other encounters, Tommy had been a commander of wits but unfortunately, his subject could not serve him at this time. There is a limit to an extent to which one can use his normal tactics to solve his problems. And for Tommy, he had exhausted his.

  After all testimony was concluded, Tommy's attorney called upon him to make his closing argument. It was his last chance to state why he thought that he was not guilty of all those charges that had been leveled against him. In his articulate statement, he rebutted all those accusations as the following.

  “I stand by what I know and what I know is that, I am not guilty of those indictments that have been pressed against me. I also know that in prejudice, the vociferous world believes otherwise. However, I have no proof to substantiate my claims. This is a case, ju
st like many others, that the guilty go Scott-free while the innocent get persecuted.

  Your honor, why do you think crime is escalating out there while you are putting more and more people behind bars? Could it be that the culprits are the scapegoats of the guilty ones?

  If you and your clique of the honorable grey-beards have been jailing the real criminals, crime would be plummeting. So, let our courts stop sacrificing innocent citizens who are above suspicion. Let them stop victimizing innocent suspects in the name of that paper they call judicial laws. The best rules are the rules of truth, not the rules of man or law. I believe in the rules of truth and I have faith that they will set me free from this manacles.

  In any case, you will be the ones who will be left with an incessant affliction-you the living who will not be executed along with me. So, kill me quick and save me from the nightmares of dreaming about the inception of the right rules of judiciary: the rules of truth that would make me, you and the guilty one, me.