As soon as he made his requests, Dan went to the boy and handcuffed him and then went to the other officer and tried to stem the flow of blood until help arrived. Within the next 30 seconds, sirens could be heard, all over the area, as officer after officer responded to the 'officer down' call. In addition to those police sirens, two ambulances were dispatched to take care of the wounded. By this time, a crowd began to gather out front and some of them began to shout angry words at the arriving deputies. Before long, there were close to a dozen Sheriff's Deputies conducting crowd control and the Sheriff himself was on the way to the shooting.
As Ken and Andrew were looking for Eli Bloomberg they happened to pass by the Emergency Room and happened to over hear the two-way radio that indicated there was a police officer shot and would be arriving shortly. Ken said a silent prayer it wasn't his friend Dan and the two men went looking for the main hospital administration offices.
In Eli Bloomberg's office, Eli sat trying to explain to his uncle, Simon Bloomberg, what happened earlier when his secretary buzzed him and told him that two men were looking for him. Eli looked at his uncle with fear knowing it was the two men who threatened him. Simon wanted to get to the bottom of this and told the secretary to show the two men in. Simon figured he could talk the men, calm them down, be nice to them and eventually ask them not to file any charges or make any trouble for the county hospital.
As soon as Ken Thomas walked in the door, Simon Bloomberg sat down with a scowl on his face and it wasn't because he liked Ken Thomas. Simon Bloomberg knew who Ken Thomas was, even though they had never met. Just then, he heard Eli tell his secretary to call for security and things went from bad to worse in two seconds.
Over at Rodney Costa's house, the ambulance team got the wounded officer into their vehicle and began a race to the hospital ER. The other EMTs (Emergency Medical Technicians) worked on Mr. Costa to stabilize him for emergency transport, too. Dan Fischer had shot him close to the heart, as he was trained, and the man was on the verge of dying. While all that was going on, Dan took the handcuffed Rodney out to his patrol car. On their way over to the car, Dan had to endure all sorts of insults from the gathered neighbors and onlookers.
Once he had the boy seated in the back he ordered the other officers to "clear the streets and arrest anyone who does not comply." He said it loud enough that everyone did hear him and when they saw the Deputies begin to walk down the street with their batons in hand the crowd decided to disperse quickly.
"Eli, go out in the hall and cancel that call for security," ordered Simon Bloomberg. "I'll keep our guests comfortable until you get back. And no need to hurry, Eli. Now get going!
"Gentlemen, I am sorry for what happened earlier. I am Simon Bloomberg and am on the Board of Directors here at the hospital, among other things. Can I get you a cup of coffee or a cold soda?"
"No thank you, Mr. Bloomberg. We came to have a talk with Eli Bloomberg about his tact, and lack there of, and his nurses' parading around as lawyers and judges. Now, if you will be so kind as to retrieve him, so we can get started," demanded Ken Thomas.
Simon Bloomberg knew Ken Thomas had some very high powered friends, including the governor, and wasn't about to go head to toe with him, at least not yet, so he went out the door to retrieve his nephew, Eli.
When Eli returned he was ashen and had no desire to talk to either man. His uncle knew better and wanted to tackle this head on and the sooner the better. He knew from experience, people were less inclined to cause further problems if you meet their expectations at least part way.
"Gentlemen, maybe I can help here. I am only one of seven Board members but this will probably come up for us to review, so if I can help now, maybe we can reach a mutual agreement in order to settle this minor disagreement. Can you tell me what it was that has you so upset at Eli here and that nurse?"
Ken was about to explode, and Andy knew it, so he once again held up his hand to Ken and got him to sit back and let him do all the talking. Andrew Marshall was the consummate lawyer who had been in practice for over 35 years, so he knew what he was doing. For the next 20 minutes, he told their side of the story and then he went on to tell Simon what liability the hospital had in that regard. Simon tried not to react to what he was told, as he knew that this lawyer meant business, but he tried anyway to console the men by offering some simple redress to the problem.
Again, Mr. Marshall explained what they wanted and demanded that a 'special session' of the Board be convened; otherwise, they were committed to take legal action. With that said, Andrew stood up signaling he was finished talking. Ken stood up as well and then Mr. Marshall told Simon he had five business days to get back in touch with him and then he handed him his business card. With that done, the two men walked out of the office.