Buddy was WAY too trusting when he met the intruder outside. Officers - in and out of uniform - are trained to present themselves as assertive, confident and in control, both in body language and tone of voice. This guy had neither and acted like he'd gotten caught with his hand in a candy jar. Red flags should have gone up immediately. No ID? Call 911 and confirm his identity with local dispatch.
He's taken by surprise, but he gets suspicious pretty quickly. You can see it in his face that he knows something isn't right. Once he's given up his phone and wallet the killer lowers the flashlight for a second and it's the first chance the neighbor gets to actually see the guy--he immediately looks suspicious. Then you can see the wheels turning trying to figure out how to handle the situation. Remember: he gives up the phone while he still has a light shining in his face--if you are assuming a police officer is holding that light, you also assume the officer might have a weapon out. And if he's wrong about his suspicions, what if he ends up killing/wounding someone who actually is a cop? People are trained to be compliant to police officers, so I think it does take a big step to decide "This guy isn't a cop and I need to take him out."
The moment he hands over the phone, you can see he knows he made a mistake. But he's trying to put together a lot of pieces: his missing girlfriend, missing neighbor, and this man who is telling him a plausible-enough story.
There's also the question of what will happen if he does make an obvious move. Is this man armed? Does he have a gun? I'm honestly not sure what I'd do in his situation. Getting out the phone to make a call is going to trigger this guy to do
something--I don't blame him for his hesitation.
As for the alarm, there's no guarantee that setting it off earlier would have helped her much. It would have given her some sound cover to run away, I guess, but she would have still had to look over her shoulder the whole time to see if he was after her. And it might not be loud enough for neighbors to hear it. I used to live in a wooded area in a very rural spot--and we had a really loud alarm but it couldn't be heard by our neighbors.
reply
share