Chapter 3 - My Command Was Tracking Arrival
I had not been driving home anonymously.
My brigade command knew my return itinerary.
I was scheduled to report to Fort Belvoir the next morning for
reintegration processing and a classified debrief.
My government travel office had my route.
My deputy, Lieutenant Colonel Marcus Reed, expected a check-in after I
reached my mother’s house.
When I failed to answer, he called again.
Officer Miller heard my phone ringing on the pavement.
The screen displayed:
LTC REED — 3RD SUSTAINMENT COMMAND.
Miller answered.
“This is Officer Brian Miller. Colonel Hayes has been injured in an
officer-involved shooting.”
Marcus went silent.
Then:
“Is she alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where is she?”
Miller gave the location.
He did not accuse Decker.
He did not embellish.
He simply reported what he saw.
That call became the first independent record of his version.
Minutes later, paramedics arrived.
I was transported to a trauma center.
Decker tried to follow.
A state police supervisor stopped him.
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The shooting scene was now being preserved.
Decker’s own department would not control everything that happened next.
