Beneficial Atonement

The cold wind was piercing his skin. The darkness of the night made it easy for him as his eyes were unable to gauge the depth. 

Paul was standing at the edge of the cliff with his police uniform lying near his legs. Naked against the wind, he was shivering yet he was firm on his decision to jump from the cliff.

The last few months were pretty tough for Paul. He was arrested by his own Police Department due to chargers of murder leveled against him by the family of the victim. There was no hope for Paul’s acquittal as the charges leveled against him were pretty serious. He was charged with Involuntary manslaughter of a 27-year-old bystander. 

That night when the incident occurred was pretty clear in his mind. He responded to 10–30 as he was patrolling nearby. He reached the site and went near the location from where the 911 call came from. There was no one but the broken glass indicated some foul play. 

The suspect saw Paul and made a run towards the back entrance. 

Paul saw him exit from the back entrance. 

Paul followed him. 

The suspect was running away and Paul cut him but stumbled in the process. 

According to the bystander, Paul just got up after that and shoot two times at that culprit and then shot an innocent bystander just behind that suspect. 

The most terrific part of that scenario was that the innocent bystander was there with his daughter. His daughter was crying by seeing blood oozing out from her father’s soon to be a lifeless body. 

Paul was taken back by seeing the fruits of his adrenaline-rushed action. He sat down on the curb. 

All the training that he took in the police academy failed to prepare him to face this scenario. 

Ambulance and other police arrived at the scene. They took two dead bodies to the hospital. Paul was taken back to the police station. 

The charges were leveled against Paul due to this last shot. The family of that bystander was blaming Paul and pressed charges against him. 

The Social Media trial portrayed Paul as a cruel murderer. The protest erupted and the case was fast-tracked. 

Other bystanders identified Paul as the murderer. Everyone was hell-bent to place Paul on the Chair. Nobody wanted a life sentence for him but every one favored Paul to be sent to the chair. 

Media picked the case and never ever let it die. The increasing TRP motivated the media channels to broadcast the news related to this case 24X7. It got the national attention and fate of Paul was almost seal to that chair waiting in the execution room. 

All of this was hard on the family members of Paul. They were not ready to believe that Paul can do such thing and unfortunately there were no videos of that scenario. 

Only one image became viral in which that little daughter was crying and holding the hand of her lifeless father. That altered the reality of the scenario and everyone saw Paul as the murderer. 

The image appeared on social media and become a cover photo of a major chunk of keyboard warriors. The verdict was set by them and all of them waiting to hear it from the judge. 

Paul’s Police Partner believed in his innocence and began investing the incident in his own way. His efforts were rewarded a day before the jury could deliver their verdict on Paul.

There was CCTV footage that helped the case. A CCTV footage rescued Paul from the charges. It showed that the running suspect tried to fire first on Paul.

Lucky for Paul as the Colt Python failed to fire. Paul's muscle memory reacted and he took out his gun in swift action. 

In response, Paul fired, two to the chest and one to the head. Two shots were enough for the culprit but that Mozambique Drill took over the control due to the adrenaline rush and the one to the head missed the target and pierced that head of an innocent bystander. 

All were taken back by seeing such violent behavior from a cop because they failed to see the Colt Python that the suspect was holding. The gun felt into the drainage unnoticed by anyone. 

Thus, the altered narration of the other bystanders became the reality and the social media did its job perfectly to make it Viral. 

The virality of the content established its authenticity although it was far from the truth. 

But Truth Prevailed. 

That morning turned out to be good for his family. The jury acquitted him from all of the charges. He was reinstated that morning and was about to resume his duty after two days in the city’s police force. 

But he could not fathom the fact that he killed an innocent and considered himself accountable for that. Nothing could convince him to live on as nothing has happened. 

He decided to end the life that was responsible for taking away the protection of a dad from an innocent daughter. He knew a spot to end his life. He knew that spot because he investigated a so-called suicide case over there about a year ago. 

He went there in uniform and waited for the Sun to call it a day. 

Under the protection of darkness, he wanted to take his life. He removed his police uniform and folded it with care and placed it near his legs. 

The police department seal was glowing on the cap that he placed upon the uniform. He remembered his oath in which he would fulfill his duty without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. 

Right now he was evading from his responsibility. 

A mistake was made but it needed to be rectified. 

It was time to make amends for that mistake instead of calling it a day on his life. 

The meaningless life that he was enduring right from the curb after the shoot-out till now when he realized his true duty was about to end. 

Paul found a meaning to his life and decided to live for it rather than calling it quits. He had a purpose and now he will dedicate his entire life to that.

In the upcoming days, he gathered the list of the people who suffered unnecessarily from the bullets of his police department. 

Paul decided to begin a charity for the family of such innocent victims to help them overcome the financial difficulties that they face while getting an education. 

He dialed up his entire network and collected enough funds to launch his NGO. Support poured for him from every corner of the nation ensuring that five of those fifteen families can have a college education without worrying for money. 

Besides his duty and allegiance to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; Paul now had a purpose to look for the education of innocent sufferers.