Minah and Gregory were walking on a busy street. It was night time. They were approaching an intersection. Minah started to say something then she stopped. There was a kid up ahead of them on the sidewalk. They walked closer and saw that he was holding a gun. He held the gun up, pointing it at Gregory's face. Gregory looked at the gun and looked at the kid. He stopped walking. Minah stopped walking and looked at the kid holding the gun.
"Give me all your shit," said the kid.Gregory looked at the gun and then looked at Minah. Minah was looking at the gun. Gregory didn't move.
"I ain't got all day," said the kid.
Gregory reached into his pocket and took out his wallet. He opened it and took out a 20 dollar bill and handed it to the kid.
"Give me the whole wallet," said the kid.
"This is all I have," said Gregory.
Minah opened her wallet and took out 110 dollars plus 10 cents worth of Canadian Tire money all folded tightly into a small rectangle. She handed it to the kid. He took their money with one hand, keeping the gun pointed at Gregory with the other hand. He turned and walked away slowly. They watched him walk away down the street, going in and out of the shadows and bright spots made by the streetlights. They didn’t say anything for a little while. They looked around to see if anyone else had seen. They went to the corner and saw several people walking alone or in small groups but none of them were looking in their direction.
Gregory and Minah stood on the sidewalk in front of a building. Nick was standing with them. Nick’s car was parked nearby with all the lights on. Gregory was not wearing shoes. He stood with his socked
feet directly on the concrete.
“Are you sure you don’t want to do this inside?” said Nick.
“We’re fine out here.” said Minah.
Nick looked at Gregory’s feet. “Do you want to run in and get some shoes?”
Gregory shook his head.
Nick said "Well. OK, so what happened. Start at the beginning and be as specific as you can."
Gregory said, "Well we were walking home."
"Where?" said Nick.
"Right there, going that way." Minah pointed at the corner.
Nick wrote something down in his notebook. Some sounds came from the walkie talkie strapped to his shoulder. He leaned his ear in close to listen to the sounds, then turned the volume down.
"And what happened," said Nick.
"Well a kid walked up to us and he had a gun," said Minah.
"Can you describe the youth please. What did he look like etcetera," said Nick.
"He was black," said Gregory.
Nick said something into his walkie talkie, turning away from them slightly. He wrote something down in his notebook.
“What are you writing?” said Minah.
"And what was the youth wearing," said Nick.
"I don't remember. A hooded sweatshirt maybe," said Gregory.
"How old was he approximately."
"He was like 12 years old," said Minah.
Nick looked up.
"No, older I think. Like maybe 16," said Gregory.
"He was really young. He was just a kid," said Minah.
Nick wrote some things in the notebook.
Gregory said “Hey you know the Chinese restaurant across the street there. Do you think they have a security camera or something?”
Nick looked up. He paused. “Mm, probably not. And even if he did he wouldn’t give us the tape.”
“Oh. Yeah.”
Nick spoke again into his walkie talkie and wrote something down.
Gregory and Minah waited.
"Did you believe the firearm was real," said Nick.
"Yes I did," said Gregory.
Minah nodded. “Yes definitely.”
"I mean, I've never seen one before but it looked real to to me," said Gregory.
“I mean, we gave him our shit didn’t we?” said Minah.
Nick turned slightly so they could see the butt of the gun
protruding from the holster on his belt. He touched it with his fingers. "Now if you just look at this. Did it look like this?"
"No, not really," said Minah.
Gregory said "No, it was bigger. I don't really remember. I think there are lots of different kinds of guns though. I don’t know what they’re called though."
“Was it a glock?”
“I’m not sure. But probably it was, yeah.”
"But it was definitely real?" said Nick.
"Oh my goodness," said Minah.
Gregory nodded.
Nick nodded, lips pressed tightly together, and wrote something down.
He asked them some more questions and wrote the answers down in his notebook. He paused at intervals to say things into his walkie talkie. When he had finished writing his notes he asked them if they would like to submit a formal written statement. They looked at each other. Minah nodded yes. Gregory shrugged and and then nodded yes.
Nick took several sheets of paper out of a clipboard and handed them to Gregory and Minah. "So what I'm going to get to you to do now is I’m going to get you to just write down everything you just told me. Please be as detailed as possible. And then what I’m going to do is I’m going to check over what you wrote and maybe ask you a few more questions and add some things and then I’m just going to get you to sign your names on the bottom here. Does that sound OK? Do you have a pen? I’m going to be sitting right over here in the car if you need me for anything."
Gregory took two sheets of paper and a pen and walked over to a newspaper box. He put the paper down on top of the newspaper box and began writing.
He wrote: "When I had the gun pointed at my head I experienced a sensation of something very hard and bright like a diamond going into my head and exploding in the middle of my brain. In addition to this I experienced a feeling of numbness in my extremities. I wasn’t scared.”
He stopped writing and looked over at Minah. She was sitting on the front step of the building holding Nick’s clipboard. Her head was bent over the paper and she was writing very quickly. He went over to see how much she had written.
“Are you hungry? I’m hungry,” he said.
She didn’t look up. She was writing. Gregory went back to the newspaper box and put the papers back down. He tapped his pen on the metal surface of the box and looked down the street at the parked cars
under the streetlights and the storefronts and telephone poles. There were some people walking in a group on the other side of the street and two men with moustaches coming out of a bar and lighting cigarettes. One stood in the entranceway of the bar and the other one went and stood on the sidewalk, spreading his feet wide apart and putting his hands in his pockets. He was holding the cigarette with his lips, thrusting his chin out and saying something. The other man laughed and put his hand near his groin. Gregory looked back down at the piece of paper in front of him.
He wrote: “He was black.”
He stared straight ahead for a few minutes.
He wrote: “We were walking south. It was 11.30pm.”
He tapped his pen against forehead and stared straight ahead. He closed his eyes.
He wrote: “Medium height/weight, medium build.” 12/22/2011