[Dallas News] Larry Gordon could hear the fear in his own voice, and he wondered if the gunman could hear it, too. In standoff negotiations, tone is everything. He needed this guy to know he was heard, feel he was understood.But this had lasted too many hours, and the tension, like the burnt smell of gunfire in the air, was overwhelming. Gordon’s knees ached from crouching. Pain shot through his shoulders and the back of his neck ‐ either from stress, or the weight of his ceramic-plated vest, or both.
He usually felt calm, even a little bored, in negotiations. Most involved desperate men with small guns and no real plan. This guy, separated from Gordon by a few dozen feet and a couple of sheetrock walls, had a semiautomatic rifle and a clearly defined endgame. The cops weren’t intervening in some private drama he’d set in motion. The way the gunman saw it, he was doing the intervening. He’d come for them.
In the best of scenarios, Gordon’s aim was to talk people down, coax them out peacefully. Tonight that seemed impossible. Outside, several officers were already down. Gordon didn’t know how many. He’d gotten word that one had died, and then another. Then another...