AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Objection,” Bill Bradley said, the government’s lead attorney in the case of Alexandra Quinlan versus the state of Virginia. “Officer Koppel can’t offer her opinion on how the other officers felt that night.”
“Sustained,” the judge said.
“Besides being nervous,” Garrett continued, “what else did you feel?”
“A lot of adrenaline.”
“So you were nervous and filled with adrenaline. In your opinion, the other officers felt the same way.”
“Objection,” Bill Bradley said.
“I’m asking Officer Koppel about her mindset when entering the house, not her fellow officers’.”
“Overruled,” the judge said. “Go ahead.”
“So you were nervous, and you were filled with adrenaline, and you felt that your fellow officers were experiencing the same emotions?”
“Yes.”
“Had you ever before, in your eighteen years on the McIntosh police force, responded to shots fired or to a call involving an active shooter?”
“No.”
“Had any of the other officers with you that night ever responded to such a call?”
“No.”
“So entering the home with a suspicion that there was an active shooter inside was a new experience for you?”
“Yes.”
“Other than department training on such an event, you had no practical experience?”
“No.”
“Is it reasonable to say, Officer Koppel, that handling a stressful, dangerous, and unique situation with which you had no previous experience opened the door to the possibility that things could be handled poorly?”
Donna paused, then swallowed hard. “Yes.”
“Nervous and filled with adrenaline, is it possible that the four officers who found themselves in a situation they had never before been part of could have misinterpreted the scene inside the Quinlan home?”
“Yes.”
“Knowing what you know today, would you have handled that night differently?”
Tears welled in Donna’s eyes as she answered. “Yes.”
“Can you tell the court what you found when you entered the Quinlan home on the night of January fifteenth?”
Donna took a deep breath to settle her nerves, blinked away the tears, and told the courtroom what she, and her fellow officers, discovered inside the home.
McIntosh, Virginia January 15, 2013 12:54 a.m.
“Hello?” Donna yelled as she walked into the house, her pistol trained in front of her. “Police. Is anyone home?”
It was approaching one in the morning, the house was dark, and the last thing she wanted was to surprise a gun-owning homeowner in the middle of the night should this be one colossal misunderstanding. She and her colleagues made as much noise as possible from the foyer.
“Police!” she said again. “Is anyone home?”
