SVU Case D: Crime Scene, Nickels interview log
:::doink doink::
PS 13, Harlem
August 3, 2006 3:30 PM
The deceased and injured are no longer on the scene. Mrs. Nickels and Anna are waiting by an ambulance, wrapped in blankets, along with another girl, around 15. Uniforms are already keeping the peace and CSU is there doing their thing. Other students have been rounded up and sent to their last
classes for roll check, teachers are with the students, and the Principal of the school is talking to a uniform.
Det. Frankie Silvera arrives at the scene, surveying it, her partner, Jackie Barr, walking in step with her, also looking around. A uniform approaches them.
“You guys SVU?”
“Yeah, we are,” Barr says.
“What’s going on?” Silvera asks.
Det. Vlad Hoffman arrives a little behind, and the uniform waves him over as well.
“We got quite a situation here for you,” the uniform tells them. “One kid, a Peter Schumann, is dead. Another was shot and two were stabbed. They're all at St. Vincent's for treatment. The teacher there,” he pauses, indicating the middle aged woman
by the ambulance, “was the one who called it in. Kinda shocked by the whole thing.”
Frankie nods, gesturing for him to go on.
“They got fights here but she's never really seen anything this bad,” the uniform continues.
“Any idea who did it?” Jackie asks.
“Probably one of the kids. Maybe one of the faculty. Everyone has to go through security to get on campus though. Maybe more than one. Kinda hard to shoot and
stab all at once.”
“Do they have video cameras?” Jackie leans in, as does Vlad, who listens.
“Have them in the halls but not on the playground area. Not enough money for that kind of thing.”
“All right,” Jackie says, looking around again. “Who's here to talk to?”
The uniform indicates the ambulance. “The two girls over there and the teacher. The principal is over there.” He motions nearby.
Barr nods, turning to Hoffman. “You go talk to the principal...I'll take
Frankie and talk to the girls and the teacher..”
The teacher and girls are both at the ambulance. None of them are injured though the girls are both covered in blood. One of the girls looks particularly more shocked than
the other. Silvera and Barr walk over to where they are.
“Hi....I'm Jackie, and this is Frankie. What are your names?”
The teacher stands and holds out a hand. “Rose Nickels, Assistant Principal. These two are Anna Schumann, and,” she motions to the more shocked girl, “Maggie Larson.”
Maggie is about 16 with dark brown curly hair. She turns away when the detectives look her way, obviously not wanting to talk Anna is slightly younger, maybe 14 or 15 and has
straight light brown hair. She looks forlorn, possibly not ready to speak yet.
Jackie turns instead to Mrs. Nickels. “What did you see?”
Sitting back down, Rose Nickels begins. “School had just ended. I was packing up my things. I heard something out the window. Usually kids go straight home. I looked out and there were a bunch of kids facing off. Then I heard gun shots. Three. And screaming. I ran outside but most of the kids had dispersed.” She pauses, glancing at Anna and then back to the detectives. “Anna was holding her brother Peter. Stephen, Aspen and Nancy were all lying on the ground. I froze for a moment and ran back inside to call.”
Jackie moves closer to Anna. “Did you see the person who hurt your brother?”
Anna doesn’t look up, but shakes her head. “Too many people.”
Frankie looks to Maggie Larson. “Did you see anything?”
“No.” The girl’s voice is defensive and she replies sharply.
“Anything unusual happen at school today?” Frankie asks Mrs. Nickels.
“There was a fight in Ms. Shimp's class yesterday. Aspen Custer, Isaac Rosen and Alex Lumberg were all suspended because of it. Today everything was normal. Until this
thing after school.”
“How normal is it for the three of them to get suspended?” Frankie writes the names in her notepad.
Mrs. Nickels sighs. “Isaac has been suspended before. Alex and Aspen have been warned, but not suspended. Oh this is terrible.” She shakes her head sadly.
“How did the fight start?” Jackie asks.
“Yesterday?” Mrs. Nickels says, “You'll have to talk to Ms. Shimp. Something about WWII.” She looks at the school building. “ She's in room...A-11. Yes, A-11.”
“Do the kids here usually get that…” Jackie pauses, “Involved in their studies?”
“Not usually. Not like that. Dr. Turner is thinking of pressing charges.”
“Pressing charges? How bad of a fight was it?” Jackie frowns.
“Some scuffling,” Mrs. Nickels says, “A window was broken. Charges are usually pressed to keep kids from doing it again.”
“But this... It's going to be like Columbine, isn't it?” The teacher looks fearful.
“What makes you say that?” Jackie asks.
“Well, the shooting and stabbing. Our security system is suppose to be functional... That and there was a lot of tension between the kids…” Mrs. Nickels drifts off.
“When we were kids, kids just beat the crap out of each other...” Jackie makes a note.
“Oh it's not that way any more. Sadly...it almost seems to be a pastime for some of the children today.” Mrs. Nickels looks down.
“Any idea what the source of the tension was?” Frankie looks at her, curious.
Mrs. Nickels looks back up again. “There are whispers of racism here. Not
white verse black... ::looks down:: Neo-Nazi and Jewish.”
Jackie gives her partner a look and then glances back at Mrs. Nickels. “Really?”
Mrs. Nickels nods. “We've been trying to push it out for about seven years now.”
Jackie writes that down. “Any other....incidents like this?”
“We've had a few fights in the past years, like yesterday's...but nothing like this...ever.”
“Any thing that wasn't a fight? Like graffiti?”
“We've had a few nasty words painted on walls but mostly it's just name calling and notes.” She stands. “ I'm sorry. We shouldn't talk like this in front of the girls.
Frankie decides to try with Maggie again. “Do you know anything about that?”
The girl takes the same sharp tone as before. “No!”
“Nothing at all?” Frankie raises her brows.
The girl looks at her and snaps. “That's what I said, wasn't it?!”
Frankie sighs. “Lots of people tell me they don't know anything when they really do.
Maggie looks a little ill. “I don't know anything!” She hides behind her hands. “Leave me alone!”
Mrs. Nickels looks at the girl with concern and then to Frankie. “Maybe...maybe you should do this elsewhere. Don't her parents need to be informed? She's only 16.”
“If she didn't do anything wrong, she has nothing to worry about.” Jackie frowns.
Despite, or maybe because of Jackie’s words, Mrs. Nichols still looks worried. “Then don't do this in front of Anna at least. She's been through a lot. You can use my office if you'd like.
“Did someone call her parents?” Frankie asks.
“Anna’s?...I-I don't think so.”
At that moment, Lt. Rey Curtis walks onto the scene. After a moment of looking around, he spots the detectives and the other women and goes over.
Mrs. Nickels looks at the girls again with growing concern. “Most parents would insist on having their children back right away. The officers wanted them all to stay here.”
“They need to know she's ok at least,” Frankie says.
Jackie nods. “I know I'd be flipping out..”
Rey walks over to where they're standing, and nods to Jackie and Frankie.
Mrs. Nickels nods at Frankie and Jackie. “Should I call?” When she sees Rey, she immediately shuts her mouth, not knowing his purpose.
Frankie sees this and introduces her. “Mrs. Nickels, this is Lt. Curtis.”
Rey holds out his hand. “Lt. Rey Curtis, ma'am...”
“Mrs. Nickels…” She shakes his hand.
Rey glances over at Frankie and Jackie. “What's, uh, goin' on?”
Vlad goes over to them at the same time, trying to stay out of the way.
With all the new people and the former topic, Anna stands up and quietly walks away from the group before sitting on a bench a few feet away.
Jackie lowers her voice. “School violence...some didn't make it.”
Rey resists the urge to roll his eyes. “Well, I knew that...I meant, the current situation....” He looks at her expectantly.
Jackie tries not to show her annoyance. “We really don't know what happened. Confusion seems to have ruled the day.”
When Rey looks over at the schoolyard for a moment, Vlad takes the chance whisper in Frankie’s ear. "Want me to try and talk with Anna?"
Rey looks back. “How many dead? Who's been informed, who needs to be,
that sort of thing? Come on, Barr...”
Jackie’s tone stays even. “Well, it appears the parents have not been informed yet...I
can go start on that if Rose here will give me a list.”
Mrs. Nickels nods.
Rey looks briefly alarmed. “A list? How many kids died??”
Frankie leans over. “List of parents.”
Jackie chimes in, “Well, sir...I figured the parents whose kids are all right should know too.”
The lieutenant looks more than mildly bothered. “Yeah, you still haven't answered my question.”
Frankie sighs, and shrugs at Vlad.
“I'll go find out, sir…” Jackie gladly walks off, away from her CO and partner.
Curtis looks about ready to pop. He turns to Frankie. “You don’t know how many died??”
”One,” Frankie says, “Schumann.”
Vlad looks at the boss, and at Frankie and takes off before he gets yelled at too.
“Then what the hell was that?” He motions in Jackie's direction as she walks off.
“You freaked her out.”
“I freaked her out? Because she didn't know the details of the crime scene...look, we don't have time for this. Someone needs to call that kid's parents...”
“And she was going to do that.” Frankie doesn’t want to argue, that won’t get them anywhere, soo her tone is even. “She was doing fine.”
“Yeah, alright,” Curtis says, “ I'll just be over there,” he motions, “calling the Chief. The emergency lines are flooded in this borough with parents wondering where the hell their kids are.” He walks off, annoyed, to call the Chief.
Jackie sees him and follows Curtis, tapping him on the shoulder.
He turns around, phone up to his ear. “Yeah, Barr?”
She clears her throat. “One child is dead, three injured. The injured ones went to St. Vincent's. One shooting, two stabbings. The two girls are Anna, the sister of the victim and Maggie.” She thinks for a moment, then goes for it. “And, sir...just because you're worried about looking like a rookie doesn't mean you should take it out on me...”
Curtis clenches his jaw, an indignant, hard glare creeping into his eyes. “Go call that boy's parents, Barr. Like I told your partner, there is absolutely no time for this shit. There are parents worried about their children. And if your biggest concern is insulting the boss because you're not up to speed, save it.”
Jackie doesn't bother disguising her smirk. “Well, gee..I'm glad you're here to tell us what to do, because we'd never figure anything out on our own.” With that, she stalks off to make the phone call.
Curtis watches her go, balls a fist, and stalks off the other way to make his
own call to the Chief of D's.