[Neenah]

How would you explain the police allowing people to continue to roam about when there were reports of an armed gunman?

This makes no sense ! The only answer has to be that the police knew there was no gunman, so the neighbors were not at risk of being shot, and Elizabeth was not at risk.

If it was known by the police that there was a gun involved and a threat of killing if MK told...there is NO WAY the PD would allow people to free roam.

But then...I guess they were roaming about when the PD got there. Strange.

[Jolly Green]

This makes no sense ! The only answer has to be that the police knew there was no gunman, so the neighbors were not at risk of being shot, and Elizabeth was not at risk.

You are propagating a myth. Why would the police say there was a gun if there was not? What possible motive would LE have for that particular deception? Why are you assuming that all 40-50 neighbors knew there was a gun?

[cookiedough]

How would the police know there had been no gunman before they had investigated the case? The simple answer is that the police assumed this was a runaway case, and even if it weren't, the gunman was long gone. Gunmen do not hang around to get into a shootout with the neighbors!

Fact is, the police made a mistake in not securing the crime scene immediately. This is not a small town PD -- they could have called for reinforcement if they needed help clearing people from the scene.

Police officers do make mistakes based on erroneous assumptions, sometimes. Don't we all.