The 2pm meeting had yielded a few ideas, though not too many leads yet.
On their way to the Homicide Office, Olsen had pulled them aside, explaining that they would be being joined by a mass shooting specialist from the Boston area, Arthur Forester, sometime over the next day. The sixty-something man with the heavy FBI background had graciously offered his assistance in tracking down their killer, and Mike was eager to add him to his lineup of support.
The ballistics report was lying on his desk as he returned, confirming the use of a single weapon, semi-automatic. Judging by the some of the excessive scratches on the bullets founds, the lab team suspected it to be an older gun that had seen heavy use over the years.
Because of that, as Mike had feared, Norm's research on firearm sales in the area that might tie into their case had yielded few prospects, and R&I was currently busy running them through the computer databanks hoping for a needle in the hay stack.
Dan's research had proven to be more fruitful with a potential lead from the Tri-City Cab Company on the pickup of a mid-thirties man in a black trench coat and ill-fitting jogging pants that didn't match his attire at all. Then again, Mike figured that the baggy pants would hide additional ammunition quite well. The cab driver remembered the pickup being near Market and Grant right before several black and whites crossed his path, and said he dropped the quiet man with the worn-out suitcase off on the corner of Geary & Webster.
Captain Parker's team had also been successful in finding a ski mask a block south from the shooting spree, directly in the path of the taxi pickup. Mike held out hope that their expert lab crew would be able to find some clues on the mask that would lead them to their killer shortly.
With Hassejian and Haley back to their research, Mike was left with a stern-faced Lenny in the guest chair, and an unusually quiet Steve off in the corner by the tall file cabinet, his lean back turned toward them, listening to the conversation but not willing to add to it.
"Your lack of eye witness testimony has several reasons, one being what's commonly referred to as the Bystander Effect in Psychology.", Lenny explained in an even tone, ready to continue his speech, but Steve was faster.
"The Bystander Effect is characterized by the likeliness in which an individual will help another one in a crowd setting, based on factors such as altruism, ambiguity of the outcome, social status and diffusion of responsibility."
With his eyebrows raised, Mike glanced over at his partner and cocked his head in pride, yet unable to pull him out of his moody state, then moved his attention over to Lenny.
"In English please."
"What Steve means is that people are less likely to take action in an emergency situation when there's a crowd around them, or whether or not they perceive certain threats with their interference, such as personal or socio-economic harm, cultural disgrace even. Nice job, by the way, Stephen. You're gonna go far in Psychology one of those days."
Noting the lack of a reaction to his friendly prodding, Lenny shared a worried glance with Mike before continuing.
"So…at any rate, the Bystander effect is one of the reasons, because people may have looked the other way, not wanting to get involved. Another reason is dissociative amnesia. It's a stress reaction to a severely traumatic event, resulting in bystanders and eye-witnesses not to remember the assailant, no matter how hard they try. They may not even be aware that they ever saw him. It's a self-preservation mechanism of the brain that is extremely hard to break through, even if you were to find people who might be able to give you a good description, especially this early into the trauma and considering we're dealing with everyday civilians here, not trained professionals. This often happens with rape victims too, or husbands who are forced to watch their wives getting raped, armed robberies, anytime the mind cannot comprehend the trauma and blurs it out."
Nodding understandingly, Mike took a sip of coffee and glanced over at Steve who had one arm wrapped around his chest, the other one seemingly holding up his chin in a subdued state somewhere between deep brooding and total exhaustion.
"Mike, another problem is what I refer to as passive oblivion. It's likely what happened in that nightclub. In an environment that people deem to be safe, a sudden outside influence, such as this shooter, will startle the patrons enough to cause them to act like…like deer in the headlights, sometimes even carry on about their business. Because, you see, in their minds, what's happening at the moment is impossible, unimaginable, because they deemed the nightclub to be a safe place. Unfortunately, by being passively oblivious to the threat, they all became victims, and there were hardly any survivors to tell the tale."
"So in other words, even though we may have countless eye witnesses out there, they won't remember what they saw, and possibly not even realize what they saw?"
The incredulousness in Mike's words wasn't lost on the other two men, and even Steve turned around, his red-rimmed eyes studying Lenny curiously, as they awaited an answer.
"Pretty much. Now, some of that may disappear over time. These people may suffer from nightmares down the road, as their mind attempts to come to terms with what they saw, but there's no telling about the timeline, or the accuracy of the information you may receive. I am sorry gentlemen, but on this case, we're going to be on our own."