When Raymond left the room, he saw Puit waiting in a separate conference area with Morrow and a private attorney he had retained overnight. The younger officer was wearing civilian clothes and seemed smaller without his duty belt. Their eyes met across the corridor for a brief moment. Raymond gave no sign of recognition beyond a glance, and Puit looked away first.
Voss called Puit into the interview room after Raymond departed. She placed his written statement beside a laptop and asked him whether he wished to amend any portion before reviewing the recording. He said no. His attorney nodded for the interview to continue, and Voss pressed play.
Puit watched himself on the laptop screen with the expression of a man examining a stranger's bad decisions. In the recording, his voice sounded harsher than he remembered, every demand carrying the certainty of someone who expected an answer only because he wanted one. Raymond's movements were visible from the beginning: hands open, posture steady, no attempt to conceal a weapon, no movement toward the officer. The audio captured the statement about the car being too expensive for a man dressed that way, followed by the request for identification and the clean registration return.
"Let's stop here," Voss said when the video showed Puit coming back from his cruiser. She displayed the computer log alongside his written statement. "You said you believed the subject was in possession of a stolen vehicle. The registration returned clean and matched the driveway where the car was parked. What fact justified continuing a criminal investigation at that point?"
Puit shifted in his chair. "Ownership doesn't mean he had permission to be on the property." Voss did not react.
"Did you receive information that Mr. Doss was an unauthorized occupant?" "No, but I didn't have proof that he wasn't." Voss wrote the answer down, then looked up.
"Your uncertainty is not evidence of an offense. Was there anything else?" Puit glanced at his attorney, who said nothing.
The recording continued to the exchange about Sandra. Voss stopped it after Puit described a welfare check and possible emergency removal. "You indicated in your report that you were concerned for the safety of unknown occupants," she said.
"What behavior suggested anyone in that house needed assistance?" Puit leaned back. "He was refusing to cooperate." Voss considered the answer. "With which lawful request?"
He did not answer immediately. Morrow, sitting beside his attorney, shifted but remained silent. Voss let the pause continue long enough to make it clear that she did not intend to fill it for him.
"I believed I had discretion," Puit said finally. Voss nodded once. "That describes what you believed about your authority. It does not identify a fact about the residence."
At the moment on the video when Puit grabbed Raymond's arm, Voss opened a second window containing the use-of-force statement. "You wrote that the subject moved aggressively toward you, causing you to initiate defensive contact," she said. "On the video, you close the distance while Mr. Doss remains still." Puit stared at the screen.