The Parking Lot Fight You Did Not See
At 2215 you respond to a radio call of a fight in the employee parking lot of a 400,000-square-foot distribution center. You arrive after the fact. Two men are standing apart, breathing hard. One has blood down the front of his shirt and a half-inch cut above his left eyebrow; he says, "He cut me." A second employee says, "The tall guy swung first." A box cutter lies on the asphalt 12 feet from the base of light pole 7. Four employees are standing around talking in a loose group. The lot camera covers only the north half of the lot; this is the south half. Shift change is at 2230, when about 60 employees will walk out through this lot. You saw none of the fight.
1. Set out your actions in priority order for the first ten minutes.
Read the worked answer
Safety and medical first, evidence second, paperwork last.
- Medical. The eyebrow cut needs EMS evaluation - call it, do not decide for him that it is minor. Note who rendered aid and when.
- Separate and stabilize. Move the two men at least 30 feet apart and out of sight of each other, with a supervisor or witness present. Ask them not to discuss it.
- Preserve the scene before the crowd arrives. You have until 2230. Mark or cone the area around the box cutter, keep the four bystanders from walking through it, and do not pick up, open, or wipe the tool. If the tool must be moved (imminent hazard), gloves, photograph the original location first, and record who took it and where it went - chain of custody.
- Call police and request that they handle the weapon and any statements.
- Identify witnesses now, before shift change scatters them: name, employee number, shift, phone, and a one-line note on what each claims to have seen.
- Note the environment: lighting, weather, obstructions, and the fact that the camera does not cover the south lot - request that video be preserved by the control room in writing.
2. How do you write the report so the conflicting statements and the box cutter are handled correctly?
Read the worked answer
Attribute everything; conclude nothing.
- Separate what you saw from what you were told: "At 2215 officer arrived and observed male, later identified as , standing near light pole 7 with blood on the front of his shirt and a laceration above the left eyebrow." Then: " stated, 'He cut me.'" Then: "Employee ___ stated, 'The tall guy swung first.'"
- Never write "victim," "assailant," "assault," or "stabbed." Those are conclusions for police and courts. Write "laceration," "box cutter on the ground," "an object resembling."
- Record times from your watch and say so; note when times are estimates from others.
- Do not identify "the tall guy" as a person. Record the words and, separately, descriptions you actually observed.
- Log the weapon's location, condition as seen, who secured it, and to whom it was released, with times.
- Close with an objective statement of what remains unknown - no camera coverage, no direct observation of the fight - rather than implying you know what happened.
3. A shift supervisor asks you to add, "The two employees were fighting over a gambling debt," because "everyone knows that." What do you do?
Read the worked answer
Leave it out, and say why in one sentence.
- You have no firsthand knowledge of a gambling debt. Putting it in the report converts rumor into an official record that will be read by police, HR, and possibly a court, and it makes every accurate part of your report attackable.
- The legitimate version of that information is attributed and sourced: "Supervisor ___ stated at 2240 that he believed the parties had an ongoing dispute; officer has no direct knowledge of the nature of any dispute." Better still, let the supervisor's own statement stand on its own.
- Declining is not insubordination. Say: "I can only document what I observed or who told me what. I'll quote you."
- If the supervisor insists or edits the report after submission, note the change, keep a copy, and notify your account manager. Documented contemporaneous notes are your protection.
- Accuracy also protects the injured employee: an unsupported motive line can follow him into a criminal or unemployment proceeding.