Jimmy nodded and headed toward the backyard. Clearly, he was to assume his old role again—Amy had evidently designated him for the dirty work. With hostages involved, the police needed to be extremely cautious about firing their guns. The procedure had to be flawless; above all, they had to avoid injuring the hostages, especially the children.
On the way to the backyard from the side, Jimmy had already scoped out the house's structure and the occupants clearly.
Two human figures, one big and one small, were sitting on the ground. Judging by the shapes of the surrounding objects, they seemed to be next to a sofa. Meanwhile, two other figures were standing; one near the front window, watching outside, and the other beside the seated figures, seemingly holding a pistol aimed at them.
Earlier, when he was at the front, Jimmy had noticed that all the windows were curtained. It seemed there were still some gaps on the sides of the curtains that allowed someone inside to see out.
The houses here were all single-story, generally built with hollow bricks. For large-caliber firearms, penetrating walls was not a problem, but for pistols, they were indeed an impassable barrier.
While surveying, Jimmy plotted his entry route. Reaching the backyard, he saw two other officers. A flashlight signal, and he pressed himself against the rear wall of the house.
After carefully inspecting the back door, Jimmy gave up on it. He hadn't noticed during the side inspection, but the back door had been blocked, apparently with a crowbar or something similar wedged over the handle, fixing the door to the wall.
If they breached by force, they would certainly alert the people inside. A silent entry was out of the question now.
Sergeant Amy and the other officers were still calling out at the front, and the people inside weren't paying attention to the back door. After all, it was secured, and there were no windows at the back. To them, the only threat was from the front.
Jimmy continued to circle the house. These suburban homes weren't like those in the city center with various high-rise buildings offering vantage points for aiming. For Jimmy, all he needed was an angle that allowed an attack on both individuals simultaneously.
It seemed the only option was to attack from the front. There were no entry routes from the side or back.
Jimmy pressed his walkie-talkie, "Sergeant Amy, the back door is inaccessible. We'll have to go in from the front or shoot into the house from the side, but the angle is very poor and the hostages would be in danger."
Jimmy reported his observations, then made a half-circle and returned to Sergeant Amy's side.
In a low voice to Amy, Jimmy said, "Can we get our hands on some Shock Bombs or Tear Gas? If we go in hard, the hostages are definitely at risk. I think we should call SWAT. At least their armored van is bulletproof, which would allow a safer approach to the door."
Amy: "We've already notified SWAT, but they'll need about half an hour to get here—oh, make that 20 minutes now. As for Shock Bombs and Tear Gas, we don't have any. Only SWAT has those."
Jimmy took off his hat and scratched his head. Waiting 20 minutes was fine, since there wouldn't be any need to take risks once SWAT arrived. However, if it were possible to handle the situation earlier, the hostages could be rescued sooner.
"Is there a chance to borrow some from the base?" Jimmy made a motion as if reaching out for something. Amy looked at Jimmy somewhat speechlessly. Jimmy was thinking too far ahead—best not to deal with the base if possible; who would want to stir up a hornet's nest...
"We'll wait for SWAT."
Jimmy shrugged, then lay prone at the hood of Amy's squad car with his M16, aiming at the window. The suspect he was targeting was just beside the window Jimmy had in his sights, hidden behind the wall, out of view to others.
Half an hour later, SWAT arrived, two teams exiting their vehicle. Amy stepped forward to brief them on the situation, and a few more minutes were spent discussing tactics. Finally, Sergeant Amy called out to the suspects inside the house, issuing the ultimate ultimatum.
Jimmy moved position as soon as SWAT arrived. He placed his M16 back in the trunk, took out an M686, and moved to the side of the house. Using Heart Eye Observation, he surveyed the situation inside; both suspects had moved to windows on opposite sides, each to a different window, both away from the hostages.
A good opportunity presented itself. Jimmy stepped back a few steps, coming to the corner of the wall on this side. According to Heart Eye's estimated position, if he shot from this angle, he could directly hit one of the suspects. If SWAT could aim at another suspect from the other side, they could simultaneously take down both individuals.
"Bang""Crash", SWAT on the other side launched a Tear Gas, shattering the glass and entering the room. Following the burst of the tear gas inside, two more Tear Gas canisters were thrown into the room.
Jimmy could see everyone inside bending over coughing. The two suspects had left their original spots and moved to the middle of the house. From Jimmy's angle, he could directly fire, but because of the curtains, if he fired now, there would be no way to explain afterwards. The perfect opportunity was thus wasted.
A team of SWAT officers, holding Bullet-Proof Shields in formation, had arrived at the front door, while another team waited against the wall, ready to follow as soon as the first team entered.
Jimmy came over from the corner and stood behind the last officer of the SWAT squad at the door. The second officer fired a Door-breaking Bullet with a Shotgun, the lock core blasted away, immediately followed by a kick that flung open the door, and the shield-bearing officer walked in with his shield raised in front.
A suspect fired at the SWAT officers, but due to the effect of the tear gas, the accuracy was off, and the bullets didn't even hit the shield. He was swiftly killed by the officers following behind. The other suspect, during the door breach, had immediately rushed to the side of the hostages. He did not raise his gun to aim at the SWAT personnel but instead held the gun to the head of the middle-aged woman.
"Bang""Bang" These two shots were fired by Jimmy, who was not hindered by visibility. He had already noticed the suspect's movement as the door was opened. As SWAT killed one suspect, he had already crouched, aimed, and fired at the second suspect. The first bullet hit the suspect's handgun, which was raised upwards by the bullet's force, and Jimmy's second shot went straight into the eye, killing the suspect before he had a chance to shoot, and he fell backwards.
The SWAT team members were tired of Jimmy hogging the glory. When he stood behind them, they had already identified this Asian county police officer, or they wouldn't have let him follow along.
In the previous LRPD case, Jimmy had taken down 2 out of 3 suspects. This time, out of 2, he had taken down 1. Although it wasn't really about credit or anything, for professional SWAT officers, it was embarrassing to have been shown up twice in two operations.
But there wasn't much they could say. The news of a butcher in the county police had been circulating for half a year now. Others might not know the situation, but they were well aware of the Butcher's combat abilities.
The record of four assailants killed with one escaping and the subsequent review of that gunfight had been repeated many times in their SWAT training. To this day, no one could meet the training goal of killing four without sustaining any injuries.
After Jimmy killed the second suspect, he stood up and walked towards the suspect's body. He kicked the dropped handgun to the side and used his radio to signal the people outside to come in.
County police from the North District also came in. With Jimmy's job done, he left the rest, greeted Amy, high-fived the SWAT team, and left the house.
"Hey, Jimmy, hold up." One of the SWAT leaders came over.
"Jimmy, nice shooting. Are you interested in joining us?" Cutting straight to the chase, Jimmy actually did not mind this type of communication. Everyone was so busy, there was no need for pretense.
"Ha, I'm quite comfortable at the county police. Just call me for support when needed."
"OK, I was just asking. When you're free, you can come to our base. We should exchange notes."
Jimmy casually agreed, then got into his police car and drove towards the police station.
American police are not all like in the movies or TV shows, where they dare not shoot when a suspect has taken hostages. In reality, there are many cases in the United States that can be found online, where police directly shoot and kill suspects after they have taken hostages, and there are numerous incidents where hostages were injured and even some where they died.
According to the varying police regulations of each state, there are completely different handling schemes. Some states require police to send negotiators to bargain with suspects in order to save hostages, but these rules do not apply to all states or all situations. I did not obtain specific handling schemes from Arkansas; everything is based on the situation in the novel.
Let's just briefly mention the situation here. Please don't quarrel about it in the comments section.