“Jordan?”
Jordan looked toward her.
“Call my dad.”
She already had her phone out.
“I am.”
Pike got one cuff around Jordan’s left wrist.
Jordan’s right arm was beneath him.
“Other hand.”
“I can’t roll that way.”
“Other hand.”
“My shoulder!”
Pike grabbed his upper arm.
Jordan screamed.
Bennett reached forward.
“Stop. Stop.”
Pike looked at him.
“What?”
“He’s not going anywhere.”
“He needs to be controlled.”
“He’s on the ground without his chair.”
Pike released Jordan’s arm.
For a few seconds, the scene became strangely quiet.
Jordan lay on his side.
One wrist cuffed.
His wheelchair tipped over beside him.
Ms. Reynolds stood behind Bennett with both hands over her mouth.
A library security camera pointed directly toward the awning.
And both officers’ body cameras were recording.
No one knew yet how important those three cameras would become.
Bennett crouched beside Jordan.
“Can you feel your fingers?”
“Yes.”
“Can you move them?”
Jordan did.
“Shoulder?”
“Hurts.”
“Anywhere else?”
“My hip.”
Bennett looked at Pike.
“Call EMS.”
Pike responded, “He needs to finish being secured first.”
“No.”
Pike stared.
Bennett stood.
“No, Jared. He’s injured. Call EMS.”
The disagreement lasted only a few seconds.
But it mattered.
Bennett had gone along with too much already.
Now he finally drew a line.
Pike radioed for medical assistance.
Ms. Reynolds kept her phone pressed against her ear.
“Yes,” she said. “Jefferson Library. Jordan Ellis. Police are here. He fell out of his wheelchair.”
She listened.
“No, Mr. Ellis, I don’t know exactly. Please just come.”
Jordan looked at her.
“Is he close?”
She nodded.
“Very.”
Pike heard the name.
“Who’s his father?”
Ms. Reynolds looked at him.
Then at Jordan.
Jordan shook his head slightly.
Not because the answer was secret.
Because it should not matter.
“My dad,” Jordan said.
Pike rolled his eyes.
“That’s helpful.”
Jordan did not answer.
The ambulance arrived first.
Paramedic Lisa Warren approached with her partner and immediately knelt beside Jordan.
“What happened?”
Pike said, “He resisted detention and fell from the wheelchair.”
Ms. Reynolds said, “That is not what happened.”
Pike turned.
“Ma’am.”
She pointed toward the library.
“We have cameras.”
Nobody spoke.
Warren focused on Jordan.
“Jordan, I’m Lisa. Where does it hurt?”
He described the shoulder and hip.
“Any head strike?”
“No.”
“Neck pain?”
“No.”
“Baseline sensation in your legs?”
Jordan explained what he normally could and could not feel.
Warren asked before touching him.
That small courtesy nearly made Jordan cry.