Midnight shift, snowy night, the station was probably pretty quiet, not much activity in or out. BH didn’t come in the front door where you usually have a duty supervisor and maybe a clerk who would take any walk-in reports. Where he came in, he may have been visible to the dispatch officer, although I don’t know the layout of that particular station.
He said the Chief gave him an office at the station. He may have spent some time in there hunkered down, monitoring the scanner. He probably didn’t have a whole lot of interaction with other officers and there would be a lot fewer on duty for that shift in a smaller, low crime, town.
The station is a little unusual. It is a beautiful old school building. It likely has corridors with various offices running off it, many of which were probably closed on the late shift.
The whole car shuffle at the station could have been his excuse for going there that night although it is possible there were designated off limit parking spots during snow removal. I believe BH testified he had to move his police vehicles, plural. Why would a LEO be assigned more than one vehicle. Regardless, he shouldn’t have been driving at all that night.
