In other words, he's what they call a "diener." He assists the specialist doing the autopsy and does most of the dirty jobs involved, like cleaning out the intestines and sewing up and such. Honest work, and necessary too, but it's hardly what you'd call exalted.
Yep, I think you pretty much nailed it.
this whole event is a cluster #$@#@...hopefully, it will fade away when it is made obvious that the officer was firing for his life.
I was assigned diener duties once at a stateside military hospital in 1969 or 70. My qualifications? I was a medic, assigned to the ambulance unit who had not yet mastered the art of looking busy at something else when the unit commander strolled into the ambulance shed looking for someone to send up to the morgue when they called looking for a soldier to help out with an autopsy of a Vietnam evacuee who had passed away at the hospital.
A pathologist conducted the autopsy. I had to assist a couple of times in turning the body and fetching tools. When the autopsy was complete and the pathologist was cleaning up, he told me to put several handfuls of organs back in the poor guys body cavity. I told him I didn’t know where the hell they went. He just looked at me sadly and told me it really didn’t matter much where they went any more.
As you say, important work, and necessary. But not work I’d seek out on a regular basis.