For it to be as dark as it was when the police were in the trunk of the car unloading the gun, at least 10 hours or so had gone by. It would not take ten hours to get a warrant. I just want to know why they were just searching the trunk and finding the gun that long after the shooting, or why they waited so long to secure the weapon as evidence after they had found it earlier. The police waiting until after dark to collect evidence that would have been more clearly viewed by the public during daylight raises a red flag with me.
<>I just want to know why they were just searching the trunk and finding the gun that long after the shooting, or why they waited so long to secure the weapon as evidence after they had found it earlier.<>
The answer to your two questions is in the picture posted at #186.
The car had already been searched and the shotgun found. Note the black sweatshirts strewn on the ground inside the yellow tape. Those had been inside the car and thrown out in the search, thus this advisory to dispatch from the scene:
9:55:25: “Be advised, we have multiple weapons. One rifle and a shotgun”
http://nhregister.com/articles/2012/12/14/news/doc50cc0897adc1a203744261.txt?viewmode=default
And note the yellow tape. Everything within that tape had been later marked off and secured as part of the crime scene under police guard. How much more secure could it have been????
And since it is part of the crime scene, nothing inside that yellow tape gets moved until it is noted, photographed, logged, then collected for processing by evidence techs in white suits.
It likely took them that long to make a connection to an accomplice and finally get the warrant for that second car...