What Would You Do In This Situation?

[EdelRae]

-You're arguing with your best friend outside about something really stupid at 2 am.
-Shots are fired from a distance and your friend is dead. You didn't shoot him/her.
-All the neighbors say what they witnessed was you yelling at your friend then shooting him/her to death. They call the police to arrest you.
-You meet a family friend who offers you a place to hide away until the situation blows over.
-You have two options: Hide away or turn yourself in and hope for the best.

What would you do?

This is to help me with the story plot I'm currently stuck on. sweatdrop

[Maltese_Falcon91]

I'm not the type to run away from my problems. I'd surrender.

[Sir Icehawk]

I wait for the police to show and surrender without resistance. I have no reason to run. I have every reason to stay. My friend was just shot and is in the process of dying. Hell, I'm calling 911 myself.

Even if someone says I did it, I know the evidence is on my side.
1.) No gunpowder residue would be found on me as I did not discharge a firearm.
2.) The wounds won't be consistent with a firearm fired from close range and show the short was fired from a distance.
3.) No weapon would be found on or near me.

[Kithkannin]

Well as long as I don't have a gun on me and shots were fired from the distance I'd just turn myself in. Any half way competent CSI can tell that the bullets were from a distance and direction not capable from yourself. In addition if I did have a gun and it was legal then it would be fairly simple to prove by lack of gun powder residue it was me. Not to mention once again trajectory would still be wrong for you to have been the culprit.

Hope this helps somewhat with your situation! smile

[terradi]

Pretty much what Icehawk said. Ignoring the fact that I'd probably be too emotionally shaken up to even think about self-preservation, my friend is seriously injured and possibly dying. No way I'm going anywhere when first aid is so critical immediately after a serious injury like that.

The only reason I'd run is if I was afraid the shooter would continue firing, and I'd probably attempt to drag my friend with me to somewhere safe if that were the case.

If you're looking for a scenario where fleeing becomes the most logical option, fear of immediate danger would do it. And hoping that the investigation clears me while I focus on staying not dead.

[Kairi Nightingale]

I should mention that I would do the same thing others have said for similar reasons. However, I would suggest you take your character's age, experiences, personality, equipment, and how strong the bond between him/her and the friend into consideration when making this decision.

Does your character have a cell phone? If not, they might run for help instead which may look more suspicious.

Are they familiar with parts of police investigations? If they grew up fearing police, they might run once they hear the sirens on instinct. If they're comfortable with the police, they probably wouldn't.

What would they think or notice first: "holy crap, someone has a gun, I better run for cover" or "holy crap, my friend is down, I better help". They might not even register one or the other at first depending on where their attention was at the time. For instance, if they were looking at their friend when the bullet was fired, then they might react to their friend being hurt first before registering that a bullet was just fired. If they weren't looking at their friend, all they might hear is the bullet being fired and their instinct to run and hide might kick in first - self-preservation and all that.

I have to ask, though, where'd the family friend come from? If they ran outside after hearing the gunfire (which you think they wouldn't) and saw me and the dead friend before the police arrive, I find it kind of odd that the first thing they'd think to do is to offer to hide me. What does that say about what they think of the police or even me, for that matter? Just my thought.

[EdelRae]

Sir Icehawk

I wait for the police to show and surrender without resistance. I have no reason to run. I have every reason to stay. My friend was just shot and is in the process of dying. Hell, I'm calling 911 myself.

Even if someone says I did it, I know the evidence is on my side.
1.) No gunpowder residue would be found on me as I did not discharge a firearm.
2.) The wounds won't be consistent with a firearm fired from close range and show the short was fired from a distance.
3.) No weapon would be found on or near me.

Hadn't even thought of that. That's good evidence.

[EdelRae]

Kairi Nightingale

I should mention that I would do the same thing others have said for similar reasons. However, I would suggest you take your character's age, experiences, personality, equipment, and how strong the bond between him/her and the friend into consideration when making this decision.

Does your character have a cell phone? If not, they might run for help instead which may look more suspicious.

Are they familiar with parts of police investigations? If they grew up fearing police, they might run once they hear the sirens on instinct. If they're comfortable with the police, they probably wouldn't.

What would they think or notice first: "holy crap, someone has a gun, I better run for cover" or "holy crap, my friend is down, I better help". They might not even register one or the other at first depending on where their attention was at the time. For instance, if they were looking at their friend when the bullet was fired, then they might react to their friend being hurt first before registering that a bullet was just fired. If they weren't looking at their friend, all they might hear is the bullet being fired and their instinct to run and hide might kick in first - self-preservation and all that.

I have to ask, though, where'd the family friend come from? If they ran outside after hearing the gunfire (which you think they wouldn't) and saw me and the dead friend before the police arrive, I find it kind of odd that the first thing they'd think to do is to offer to hide me. What does that say about what they think of the police or even me, for that matter? Just my thought.

Very helpful input.

And yeah, this family friend is another part of the plot. She doesn't know this guy very well and hardly knows why he's helping her and whether she should trust him.

[Kairi Nightingale]

EdelRae

Kairi Nightingale

I should mention that I would do the same thing others have said for similar reasons. However, I would suggest you take your character's age, experiences, personality, equipment, and how strong the bond between him/her and the friend into consideration when making this decision.

Does your character have a cell phone? If not, they might run for help instead which may look more suspicious.

Are they familiar with parts of police investigations? If they grew up fearing police, they might run once they hear the sirens on instinct. If they're comfortable with the police, they probably wouldn't.

What would they think or notice first: "holy crap, someone has a gun, I better run for cover" or "holy crap, my friend is down, I better help". They might not even register one or the other at first depending on where their attention was at the time. For instance, if they were looking at their friend when the bullet was fired, then they might react to their friend being hurt first before registering that a bullet was just fired. If they weren't looking at their friend, all they might hear is the bullet being fired and their instinct to run and hide might kick in first - self-preservation and all that.

I have to ask, though, where'd the family friend come from? If they ran outside after hearing the gunfire (which you think they wouldn't) and saw me and the dead friend before the police arrive, I find it kind of odd that the first thing they'd think to do is to offer to hide me. What does that say about what they think of the police or even me, for that matter? Just my thought.

Very helpful input.

And yeah, this family friend is another part of the plot. She doesn't know this guy very well and hardly knows why he's helping her and whether she should trust him.

Ah, okay. I was just curious.

Glad to have been of some use. ^.^ Best of luck with your story.

[jepleure]

A few things to consider:
1. Is this a matter of confused neighbors, a conspiracy against the main character or a mix of the two? While the sound of a gun being fired from far away and a gun being fired extremely close are very different, if it's a matter of confused neighbors, what sort of trouble could their muddled, panicked thinking cause the main character? (Another thing to keep in mind is that eyewitness accounts of crimes are often terribly inaccurate. Ditto with suspect line-ups; you'd be amazed how many innocent people get ******** over by the judicial system due to inaccurate or flat out false eyewitness accounts. Might be worth doing some research on those subjects)

2. If it is indeed a conspiracy against the main character, how far does the conspiracy go? One thing to consider is that, as the position of District Attorney is often an elected position as opposed to an appointed one, many a district attorney has not been above hiding or destroying evidence that proves the defendant guilty just to improve their conviction rates on paper. Not saying all DAs are scum...just saying some really don't like to lose. You can read up on a prime example of such here and here. And those are just two higher-profile cases of wrongful imprisonment due to overzealous and/or corrupt DAs. There's no telling how many more people have been imprisoned or even put to death despite their innocence because some a*****e withheld evidence.

3. Not every town's police force has a forensics team--while common in larger cities, smaller towns don't usually have a CSI team and have to call one in from another town for crimes that absolutely require collecting a lot of forensic evidence. So if your story is set in a larger city, yes, what Sir Icehawk stated would be 100% correct as far as what the forensic team would pick up from the scene and checking your main character for GSR. If in a small town (and doubly so if there's a conspiracy afoot and the police are involved within it), however...more often than not, the detective in charge of the scene likely isn't going to bother with forensic evidence (or even so much as bother to note that the angle of the fatal gunshot wound is completely inconsistent with a frontal close-range shot) and will just use the statements collected from neighbors as probable cause to detain your main character.

If you decide to have the main character surrender to the police and need some info on how to make their time sitting in county waiting for their indictment, pre-trial and all that jazz sound realistic, I have quite a bit of information about the subject handy that I'd be more than happy to share with you. Now, I will make the disclaimer that some of my knowledge may be Texas-specific (while *knocks on wood* I have never been arrested or charged with a crime, in the the past few years I've had far more dealings with the Texas legal system than I ever again want to have for the rest of my days due to my ex-fiance), but from the research I've done for my own book, no matter what state you're in, county jail and prison really doesn't change much because of location.

[Sir Icehawk]

Even small towns know the value of not contaminating evidence the scene or evidence. They bag and tag stuff and send stuff out all the time. Range and angle of a shot to my understanding can be calculated at any time. Coroner and detectives are capable, but it takes time. You will be detained no matter what. You are the primary suspect until evidence gets back from the lab and says you are not, so I agree with jepleure.

Again, none of this matters in the moment. A friend is dying. If a mob is coming for you with pitchforks, what do you do? The pure logical thing might be to stay, because you know you did nothing wrong. You know there is no evidence against you. But what you feel is another story.

A lot of what we'd do depends on the details. Ideally, we'd all wait. If you're in a small town where all the officials are related and this friend is one of their sons, well, that's a very different story than if this took place elsewhere. If you're have a criminal record, have been drinking, or any number of things, this can change everything. There's a lot of room here. You just need to flush it out more.

Good luck!

[Moral Gutpunch]

Turn myself in. I'm likely safer with the police, I can plead for help once I get over my emotions enough, and hopefully I'll be sane enough soon to bring up the angle of the gunshot couldn't have come from my direction as the bullet never went through me (and I don't own a gun--I'm assuming I don't in this case).

[lucidpattern]

If i'm not guilty I would cooperate with the police, tell the truth, try to give them any info I could. Looks much less suspicious that way. Anyway, my friend just got killed in front of me and the last thing I said to them was probably something arbitrary and rude. I'm probably upset as all s**t.

But then again, in movies and books the writer usually has the character run away and make themselves look guilty as hell for no sensible reason because that tends to drag out the conflict in a more confusing and pointless way. So whatever.

[RyanMonkeyFace]

you have no reason to run unless it is some politically powerful person framing you. but I see no back story to suggest that aha

[sanorah]

depends on weather or not i can prove my innocence. if i can then i'd turn myself in, if i couldnt then id run. you could work allot of character development in with a runner.