That 20 minutes on foot scenario requires that Lt.J would have roughed up an area to make it appear there were signs of a struggle and shot the lower portion of his bulletproof vest but didn't (if current info is correct) make at least some effort to mess up his clothing or aquire a small abrasion or two.Heck,I'd at least roll in some mud or dirt.
Remembering the fact that whatever happened will have to fit the evidence we have, the answer to your question would have to fit the evidence as well. Correct?
We know that the Lt was there for the 20 minutes as the GPS in his car indicated. However, we don't what what his state of mind was. We don't know if he was crying or angry, etc - we only know he was there and that he had 20 minutes to do SOMETHING before he radioed in at 7:52 am.
(Assuming that this actually was a suicide of some sort) In my opinion, we can not assume that the Lt had everything meticulously planned out. Neither should we assume that he was following such a plan to the letter.
What we
do know is the amount of time between his first radio report (7:52 am) of the three individuals and the time he said to go ahead and start a backup(7:55 am).
That was the last moment that we know for sure that he was alive.
We also know the time that the backup officers arrived (Between 7:57 & 8:01 am) and the time that the arriving officers found his body (8:09 am.)
That is 17 Minutes total.
It's worth noting that
none of the arriving officers are claiming that they heard any shots. So that 2nd shot must have been fired almost immediately after the Lt told dispatch to "go ahead and start" backups to his location.
One possible explanation (that fits the evidence we have so far) is that the Lt was there and more or less
struggling with himself and the decision on whether or not to kill himself and make it look like he was killed in action.
He may have spent the whole 20 minutes walking around, pacing back and forth trying to make that final decision. It's possible that something completely unexpected caused him to go forward with the decision. It may have been a traffic noise, a cell phone call , or something else that made him realize the longer his car sat there - the more likely someone would possibly interfere with his plan. Again, who knows for sure?
But, let's imagine that by the time he decides to go through with it, the 20 minutes was wasted.
Now the Lt may think that he has to move fast. At 7:52 am, he radios in to report his location and the fake suspects. Now he's committed - he shoots himself in the side of his vest, does a few things to make it look like a struggle (but not near as much as he could have done if he started sooner) and 3 minutes later, after walking another distance of 100 feet or so, he radios in and says they are headed into the swamp, as he heads in toward the swamp himself. Dispatch then asks if he needs another unit and he says "yeah, go ahead and send somebody." He now has less than 5 minutes to fire the 2nd (fatal) shot. We know this because any more time than that and backup officers would likely have heard the shot.
This (above) is how I think it it might have went down as it fits the evidence we have so far. I would like to add that all of these facts also jibe with my theory that the Lt may have staged a fake encounter and may not have intended to kill himself. I still think it is plausible that the Lt may have only wanted to fake the encounter and shooting. In that case - he wouldn't need to stage anything more than a minimal amount of evidence of a struggle.
