Sergeant Maloney of the L.A.P.D. got a 911 call from the dispatcher just moments ago. Someone reported hearing two men arguing and then gunshots. Maloney sped to the scene, and seeing nothing unusual outside, he cautiously entered the house through the open front door with his gun drawn. He found a man in a paramedic’s uniform leaning over a man who was obviously dead or mortally wounded from a severe gunshot wound to the face. Sergeant Maloney paused for a brief moment. Then he ordered the paramedic up against the wall and began to read him his Miranda rights while handcuffing him. What are at least two reasons Maloney had for suspecting foul play?
Solution
There was no ambulance outside the residence; no one had reported the presence of a wounded victim, so an ambulance wouldn’t have been dispatched yet anyway; it is protocol that paramedics never enter a potentially hazardous situation until the police have secured the scene; and where was the paramedic’s partner?
