interaction at Greenhaven Park and that the city was conducting a preliminary review. She said no disciplinary finding had been made and asked him to describe what happened in his own words. Ryan took the seat opposite Reena and began with the sentence that had always served him well in reports: he had been ensuring public safety.
Reena allowed Ryan to finish his account without interrupting. He said that he had observed an unidentified woman lingering near a protected access route, requested credentials, and asked her to move when she became confrontational. He emphasized that the city delegation was expected at any moment and that he had wanted to prevent an unauthorized person from interfering with officials. The description sounded orderly, and Ryan delivered it in the even voice he had used in court for years. He seemed relieved when he reached the end, as though a well-structured explanation could now return the afternoon to normal.
Reena asked him where the protected access route began. Ryan pointed to a section of the map beside the stage. She slid a second copy toward him and asked whether he could mark the place where Angela had been sitting. He marked the bench beneath the oak tree, several yards outside the restricted line. Reena did not comment immediately. She asked whether anyone had reported Angela trying to cross the boundary, and Ryan said there had been no such report.
"What made you conclude she was unauthorized?" Reena asked.
"She wasn't wearing identification," he said. "I didn't recognize her from the staff roster."
"Did you review the speaker list before approaching her?"
"No. I was assessing the area, not checking the program."
"Was a visible badge required to sit on that bench?"
Ryan looked at the map. "Not specifically. But she was near the entrance."
Reena wrote down his answer and moved on. She asked what Angela had said when he requested identification, whether Angela had threatened him, whether she had physically resisted, and what words led him to describe her as confrontational. Ryan answered that she kept challenging his authority and insisting she had a right to be there. When Reena asked him to quote an actual threat or insult, he could not. His recollection of feeling challenged was vivid; the behavior that supposedly justified the feeling was much harder to specify.
At the end of the interview, Reena explained that she had a witness recording but would not require him to watch it before completing his initial statement. She wanted his memory preserved independently from what the camera might later show. Ryan asked whether the witness was Angela herself, and Reena told him the recording had been submitted by another member of the public. He leaned back and stared at the wall for a moment, visibly calculating how many people had been watching.
"Did the deputy commissioner ask you to investigate me?" he asked.
"The report was filed by a witness," Reena answered. "The deputy commissioner has been identified as a person involved and has stepped aside from any disposition of this matter."
"So this isn't because she's important?"
"The process is being applied because the reported conduct falls within the office's jurisdiction," Reena said. "Your question about her importance is one of the reasons the conduct needs to be examined carefully."