WEBVTT - 5: The Rogue Era 0:00:06.120 --> 0:00:23.840 Novel Phoenix Jones was arrested by saddle p d on 0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:29.640 suspicion of poor people got pepper school. The pepper spray 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:46.560 turned the scene into total chaos. M When we last 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:49.839 left our hero Phoenix Jones, he'd just been arrested for 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:53.519 pepper spraying a bunch of people outside of bar that 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:56.360 night on October nine, two thousand and eleven. He was 0:00:56.440 --> 0:00:59.600 booked into the county jail and then bailed out. He 0:00:59.640 --> 0:01:01.400 says that when he showed up to court a few 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:06.120 days later, his old nemesis, Seattle attorney Pete Holmes, was 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:09.080 there waiting for him. He's trying to convince me not 0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:10.720 to fight crime, Like, if you don't stop fin and crime, 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:12.720 I'm gonna tell your identity. I'm like, you can't threaten 0:01:12.760 --> 0:01:14.720 me with something like I will not be threatened. You 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:16.880 have nothing to threaten me with, Like it's ridiculous for 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:19.480 you to think you're gonna threaten me, ridiculous. The concepts 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:24.319 offensive you threatening me ridiculous, Like, oh, you're gonna tell 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:27.240 everybody in my identity you already did. Jerk off. I'm 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:29.200 in court. Do you think we can keep all these 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:32.160 court documents sealed? I'm aware of the clocks ticking. That's 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:33.800 why you did it. You did it to expose me 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:35.040 and to make fun of me, because you thought that 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:37.479 people would think of was a clown. It was at 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:40.679 this moment that Phoenix decided he would turn the tables 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:43.520 on his nemesis. That was one of those moments where 0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:46.000 I was like, everything sucks, but if it's gonna suck, 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:49.200 it's gonna suck my way. He looked to Iron Man 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:52.800 for inspiration, specifically the scene where the inventor Tony Stark 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:56.320 reveals his identity at a press conference and now Mr 0:01:56.440 --> 0:02:00.559 Stark has prepared a statement. Phoenix watched that lip over 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:05.440 and over again, like five or six times in a row. Truthish, 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:10.760 I am, I right man, And it was like, I'm 0:02:10.760 --> 0:02:13.320 gonna do my version of that. Phoenix set up a 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:17.880 press conference outside the courthouse on October two thousand and eleven, 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:22.800 wearing his black and gold superhero costume, flanked by people 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:27.320 in business suits. He turns to the reporters and speaks, 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:32.360 I'm Phoenix Jones, I'm also Ben Voter. I'm just like 0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:35.480 everyone else. The only difference is that I decided to 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:37.200 make a difference and stop crime. In my neighborhood, in 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:42.600 my area. The reveal didn't quite have that Hollywood polish, 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:47.440 but it was an impressive thing to witness. Phoenix had 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:49.760 made it clear to Pete Holmes and the rest of 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:52.959 the Seattle Police Department, the whole world really that he 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:55.880 would not back down from his mission to fight crime. 0:02:56.600 --> 0:03:00.800 As Phoenix saw, he called their bluff and they folded. 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:04.079 Life only is a certain amount of moments, right, and 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:07.000 I think sometimes people are conflicted by how they feel 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:10.880 their emotions, right were as I'm not so so it 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:13.160 really have a chance to look at them as how 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:17.799 can I add to my legacy? At this moment, Phoenix 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:21.359 concluded his press conference with an announcement the city Attorney 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:25.160 could take his request that Phoenix stopped fighting crime and 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:29.600 shove it. I'm paraphrasing. What he actually said was that 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:32.720 he was heading back out on patrol that weekend, but 0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:36.640 the point still stands Phoenix Jones would not be deterred. 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:40.280 I'm David Weinberg and from the team's at Novel and 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:44.440 I Heart Radio. This is the Superhero Complex episode five 0:03:44.960 --> 0:04:06.960 the Rogue Era. When Phoenix Jones revealed his identity outside 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:10.640 the Seattle Courthouse it was a moment of triumph. Shortly 0:04:10.680 --> 0:04:13.960 after Pete Holmes's office announced that they were dropping the 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:17.080 charges for the pepper spray incident. I think they just 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:20.320 went perfectly. Other than having my identity, it really went 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:22.760 perfectly because I think that legitimized me as a superhero 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:25.560 in a weird way. How well, because when I revealed 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:28.360 my secret identity, every news article said, hey, superhero revealed 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:30.240 secret identity. You have to be a superhero to have 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:32.680 a secret identity. And I revealed it because the cops 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:36.440 were coming after me for stopping crime. Phoenix said that 0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:40.960 in a way, revealing his identity actually helped him because 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:44.040 before now nobody had been able to check whether he 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:47.479 had bona fide superhero credentials. People thought it was a 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:49.359 guy running around in spandex trying to fight crime. It 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:51.280 was kind of a clown. But when you expose y 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:52.880 and behind it, you find out that I'm a four 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:56.680 time regional champion martial artist, a black belt in taekwondo. 0:04:56.839 --> 0:04:59.560 Have over crimestops now they can look up because they 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:01.960 know my school name, and then they see all these 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:04.920 legal police stocks where my name is mentioned in crime reports, 0:05:05.040 --> 0:05:07.920 including an attempted murder stop right, and all of a 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:10.600 sudden you're like, oh, that guy is not a clown. 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:13.080 So in a weird way, it legitimizes me further than 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:17.880 I ever could. If Seattle's law enforcement were out to 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:21.239 get Phoenix by charging him for a crime, they had failed. 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:26.719 If anything, the arrest made Phoenix more confident and more defiant. 0:05:27.880 --> 0:05:30.600 Shortly after he revealed his true identity, he made an 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:34.520 appearance on Fox News on Megan Kelly's show, Phoenix. Is 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:36.400 it true that at the end of the court hearing 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:38.479 yesterday you tore off your dress shirt to reveal your 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:41.600 signature black and green superhero costume? It was black and gold. Yeah, 0:05:41.640 --> 0:05:43.839 I was wearing my super suit because this wasn't about 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:45.839 the guy under the mask. They were charging Phoenix Jones 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:48.320 because I'm Phoenix Jones. If I was a regular person 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:50.360 and I had just regularly pepper sprayed someone who was 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:51.800 in a fight, they would have shook my hand and 0:05:51.800 --> 0:05:54.000 sent me away. So I wore the suit because that's 0:05:54.000 --> 0:05:56.120 what this was about, and I took my mask off 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:58.400 because the person suffering for it is the person under 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:01.599 the mask. Phoenix may have one his first major battle 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:03.679 with the police, but it was really just the start 0:06:03.720 --> 0:06:08.920 of the war. When Phoenix was arrested, the Seattle police 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:12.840 confiscated his beloved super suit and they refused to give 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:16.560 it back. Phoenix complained about it on the local Seattle 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:20.120 radio program The Bob Rivers Show. Why did they confiscate 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:22.880 your There's two answers. There's the politically correct answer and 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:27.080 then the truth. So Phoenix says that the police claimed 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:30.640 his suit was evidence and they needed it to identify him. 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:33.000 He says that doesn't make any sense because he'd already 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:36.520 identified himself publicly. He ends up complaining to the host 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:39.320 about the fact that he's having to use a substandard 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:43.560 replacement suite proof vest staff plating and doesn't have stay 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:45.760 and the police confiscated that suit. This one is not 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:48.400 so expensive. The other one that that police confiscated as 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:52.760 quotations evidence evidence was like seven thousand seven in what 0:06:52.800 --> 0:06:55.080 are they doing with that? That makes me mad? They're 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:57.320 probably wearing it and taking photos. Call every day and 0:06:57.320 --> 0:07:04.960 ask about the sup several times day. Phoenix assigned to 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:06.960 my suit, so there's not an officer I can call 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:11.280 it directly. In the moments right after Phoenix revealed his 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:14.640 identity and his dramatic press conference. It felt like he'd 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:18.680 won a massive victory over the system, but the reality 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:21.320 was that Phoenix had just opened up a huge can 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:24.880 of worms, and the repercussions of his decision to out 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:30.360 himself were about to hit with disastrous consequences. It was 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:32.000 hard for me is when my identity came out. I 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:35.560 was working with autistic children. So they yanked my state 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:37.640 license and much other stuff and said I was crazy. 0:07:37.880 --> 0:07:40.920 When Ben Photor wasn't putting on a superhero costume and 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:44.960 chasing down criminals as Phoenix Jones, or training at the gym, 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:47.280 or competing as an m M A fighter, he was 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:50.560 at his day job caring for kids with autism. He 0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:53.280 went to their homes or to state run facilities, and 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:55.680 he took them out shopping and help them learn other 0:07:55.720 --> 0:07:59.960 life skills they would need to navigate the world as adults. Well. 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:02.840 My parents own foster home that works with autistic children 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:05.960 for a living. When I turned eighteen, the first job 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:07.800 I ever had was working with autistic children. I worked 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:10.240 with autistic children until I was twenty five, and I 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:12.320 got like a bunch of different awards for like, you know, 0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:14.080 a Teacher of the Years and all kinds of different 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:16.320 stuff for working with autistic kids and helping them cope 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:18.800 with their general life skills. I found him incredibly easy 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:22.400 to like understand and like incredibly easy to help, So 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:27.880 being somewhat on that spectrum would make that easier. I guess. Obviously, 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:31.320 any person who becomes a real life superhero probably thinks 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:34.600 outside of societal norms. But there were also these small 0:08:34.679 --> 0:08:38.319 moments I had with Phoenix that revealed something deeper about 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:45.920 how he sees the world, about his thought processes. For example, 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:48.120 one night I was driving with Phoenix when he got 0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:51.720 a text from his girlfriend Dre. He pulled over to respond, 0:08:52.240 --> 0:08:55.440 and then he explained this bizarre system he created for 0:08:55.520 --> 0:08:58.400 talking to friends over text messages. I don't always understand 0:08:58.400 --> 0:09:00.200 how to explain things to other people, are like, uh, 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:02.360 what you? How you As a way to show that 0:09:02.400 --> 0:09:03.720 I like, he was not ever going to be something 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:06.600 that I value, So I came up with the system 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:09.200 with my friends where when I think about them, I'll 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:11.080 send a number, like if it's like so three one 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:13.199 three is like a sandwich. Any number has a sandwich, 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:15.520 or run like one to three, like one in morning 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:19.040 in the morning, like two numbers on the ends and 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:21.319 once number in the middle. Right. When I'm thinking of 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:23.839 my friends, I'll send him a random like the random 0:09:23.840 --> 0:09:25.960 set of numbers, you know what I mean, because math 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:29.280 always makes sense three seven right, Three plus four equals seven, 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:31.520 so I'll send him like three plus four and then 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:34.240 an equal sign and seven right. So we all send 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:36.320 each other numbers back and forth. It's kind of like 0:09:36.440 --> 0:09:38.880 saying I'm thinking about you at a specific time, or 0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:41.120 I waited till that time because you're an important person 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:43.959 to me and math makes sense to me. I didn't 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:47.440 quite understand Ben's system. It just sounds a little like 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:51.440 autistic to me. Yeah, well, like on the spectrum people 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:54.760 have said that about me before you know, I started explaining, 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:56.839 I don't know. I feel like autism is a negative thing, 0:09:57.360 --> 0:09:59.640 Like people are always saying something negative about being autistic. 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:01.679 In my mind, and if I am autistic, then I 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:03.679 guess I'm one of the most successful autistic people that 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:06.720 there is, Like I win at every game I play. 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:09.439 So whatever label people want to put on that they can, 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:14.600 I don't care what the the funk I guess. After Phoenix 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:17.880 was arrested, the Department of Social and Health Services notified 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:20.840 his employer who barred him from working with any of 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:25.040 the children in their care. Phoenix was told to leave immediately. 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:26.959 He says he had to walk out of his job 0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:30.960 in the middle of the day. The department spokesperson said 0:10:30.960 --> 0:10:33.000 they were just trying to air on the side of 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:35.720 caution and that he could have his job back if 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:39.720 he wasn't convicted. But after the charges were dropped, Phoenix 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:42.520 says he still had to prove that he wasn't mentally 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:45.760 ill before they'd consider letting him go back to work. 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:50.160 One test he says he was given was supposed to 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:53.600 determine whether or not he was autistic. At the end 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:57.080 of the test, Phoenix got a score, a number that 0:10:57.160 --> 0:11:02.000 determined where on the autism spectrum someone is. Phoenix says 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:05.240 he scored a fifty seven out of a hundred. Anything 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:10.280 above fifty could be autistic, anything above sixty is autistic. 0:11:10.880 --> 0:11:13.760 So what then does that mean? The part of the 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:18.240 test that really tripped Phoenix up was the facial recognition questions. 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:20.199 There's a part where they play like a video of 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:22.360 these faces and people make weird faces, right, and they're 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:24.240 supposed to say what emotion the person's feeling. Had no 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:27.640 fucking clue. Like it was just like random faces. It 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:29.920 didn't make any sense, no one could have done it. 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:32.679 It was crazy. So afterwards I was like, this is insane. 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:34.480 So I told my doctor about it. He's like, oh, yeah, yeah, 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:38.480 the facial recognition recognizant tester or whatever. Right, So they 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:40.200 were like, well, we'll give it to you again. So 0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:42.520 I did again. I scored the exact same thing. Right 0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:45.439 then he was like, what's your son do it? Because 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:47.480 my son was with me. Right then, my son did 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:52.440 it and he just straight up was like sad, happy, confused, angry, 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:55.040 and nailed all of them. So I was like with 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:57.439 this weird moment where I'm like, Okay, there's something happening 0:11:57.440 --> 0:12:01.360 here that I'm not seeing clearly. Phoenix told me that 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:05.160 the autism assessment was just one of several psychological tests 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:07.320 he was given. So it took me like three years 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:09.600 of like proving I'm not a crazy person. What was 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:11.760 that three year process of trying to prove that you 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:14.920 weren't crazy? What did that look like? Well, like, first 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:17.200 I had to go to stupid hearing. Then after the hearing, 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:18.840 I had some many piece of paper and then they 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:21.760 wanted me to do a mental evaluation, and then they 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:23.960 did a I e. P. Meetings, which are like between 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:26.320 like the kids that you work within the parents, and 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:29.960 the final process was something called a judgment review, which 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:31.160 is like where they just ask you a bunch of 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:34.360 questions basically. But I mean, it wasn't it wasn't hard, 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:38.160 because I'm not crazy. Eventually, Phoenix says he did everything 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:41.880 he needed to pass the psychological tests, but in the meantime, 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:44.559 he was still out of a job and a super suit. 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:48.720 But Phoenix was determined to continue protecting the citizens of Seattle, 0:12:49.480 --> 0:12:51.880 so he put on his budget backup suit and hit 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:55.600 the streets looking for action. For Phoenix, the only thing 0:12:55.640 --> 0:12:58.680 that mattered was the work protecting those in danger and 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:01.240 helping those in need, even if everything else in his 0:13:01.320 --> 0:13:04.120 life was a total mess. I'm deficient in these areas 0:13:04.120 --> 0:13:05.760 over here, but none of them have to do with 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:08.480 crime fighting. That is the one place I am sucking flawless. 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:11.760 Now Here is one issue that Phoenix and I will 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:15.640 never agree on. I wholly reject the idea that Phoenix 0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:18.600 is perfect at crime fighting. I mean, this is a 0:13:18.600 --> 0:13:21.360 guy who almost drowned in a puddle because he got 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:24.200 caught in his own net and then got robbed by 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:27.200 the criminal he was chasing. Also, every time I hung 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:29.160 out with Phoenix, we had to use my rental car 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:31.800 to get around because his car had either been towed 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:34.480 or broken into by thieves who he was never able 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:37.760 to apprehend. So yeah, I think we have different ideas 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:42.080 about what crime fighting perfection looks like. But Phoenix was 0:13:42.160 --> 0:13:44.840 adamant that he had achieved it. There's no crime he 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:48.720 can't stop, nobody he can't save. But there was one 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:52.520 tragic incident in two thousand and twelve that Phoenix admittedly 0:13:52.679 --> 0:13:57.400 failed to prevent. It was a night that changed everything 0:14:01.200 --> 0:14:19.880 that's coming up. On April two thousand and twelve, a 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:23.320 young businessman named Dennis was in Seattle for a work trip. 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:26.000 I had brought my wife and one of my kids 0:14:26.400 --> 0:14:28.520 up there to spend the weekend. They did some shopping 0:14:28.560 --> 0:14:31.120 and cruising around while I did all my work. After 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:33.360 he wrapped up the day's business, you went to see 0:14:33.400 --> 0:14:36.680 the Supercross at the Football Stadium with a friend. They 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:38.960 were grabbing some food and heading back to the hotel 0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:42.240 where Dennis's wife was waiting for him. It was two 0:14:42.240 --> 0:14:44.600 o'clock in the morning on Saturday, night, so bars were 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:47.880 closing and it was busy down there, so there was 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:50.840 a ton of people. They walked from the stadium to 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:54.280 Pioneer Square, where the streets were filled with tourists and 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:57.000 folks from the surrounding suburbs who came into the area 0:14:57.080 --> 0:14:59.960 for the bars and clubs. There was also a large 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:03.000 community of homeless people and drug dealers who catered to 0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:08.440 them alright, which was why Phoenix was a few streets 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:12.200 away on patrol with Ghost, Midnight Jack, Captain Karma, and 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:15.240 a few other members of the Rain City Superheroes. How 0:15:17.960 --> 0:15:19.920 so far, it had been just like any other night 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:22.960 on patrol. They looked for bar fights or drunk people 0:15:23.000 --> 0:15:26.240 in need of assistance, and as usual, Phoenix had snapped 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:31.240 some photos with late night revelers. Yeah, we definitely Yeah, 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:37.720 Well you gotta hurrying great there, We have a good night. 0:15:39.280 --> 0:15:41.680 By the time Dennis was setting off back to his hotel, 0:15:42.240 --> 0:15:44.720 the Rain City Superheroes had stopped a couple of blocks 0:15:44.720 --> 0:15:47.360 away outside a night club called Trinity. A lot of 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:53.240 people out here, right, bot right. Phoenix was preoccupied with 0:15:53.320 --> 0:15:57.120 some communication problems. Then again, we're losing contact. Brother, radios 0:15:57.120 --> 0:15:59.160 were trash. We had literally good radios that we had 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:01.880 painted Garma, what's your code? I tried to hail Captain 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:05.080 Karma on the radio and he didn't answer, Karma report, 0:16:05.240 --> 0:16:08.000 make him give me good radio contact? All right, who's 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:10.920 running your radio? Phoenix was getting frustrated. Can you hear 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:12.840 what I call you? Yeah? I called you three times? 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:17.120 You didn't respond? Really? Yes? Really? What are your pocket? 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:21.000 At this point locked in a petty argument about communication, 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:23.360 they had no idea that their night was about to 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:25.840 be turned inside out. And I couldn't hear what code 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:30.120 you wor so I freaked out because bang bang bang 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:33.120 gun shot gun shot gun shot. Three gunshots go off, 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:38.000 and I'm like, yo, follow me, well me. Phoenix immediately 0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:44.560 started sprinting towards the sound. Within seconds, it arrived at 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:47.920 a street called Yesler Way. People were screaming and fleeing 0:16:47.960 --> 0:16:51.480 in all directions. There's a person standing on their cell phone. 0:16:51.840 --> 0:16:54.400 There's a guy who's kind of crouching, you know, and 0:16:54.400 --> 0:16:56.520 then over here there's like a car that's driving by, 0:16:56.920 --> 0:16:58.920 and then I see it, the guy crouching. He's got 0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:03.200 a gun. M H. Dennis said he and his friend 0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:05.520 were there too. In the midst of the chaos. They've 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:08.000 been crossing the road when the shots were fired. You 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:12.640 could hear the panic. It was chaos, like scary. Over 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:17.040 on his side of Yesler Way, phoenix froze out of 0:17:17.080 --> 0:17:19.000 the corner of my eye. The person on the cell 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:25.639 phone just like drops, and it's a weird kind of 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:29.760 drop because it's like like everything just stopped working versus 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:31.399 like someone laying down or being her was like it 0:17:31.480 --> 0:17:36.000 just was like, oh. The person who dropped to the 0:17:36.000 --> 0:17:40.600 ground was te year old Nicole Westbrook. Nicole had been 0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:42.840 shot in the face and the bullet had gone through 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:45.960 her cheeks and shattered her spine. Dennis said he ran 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:50.040 towards her. Everything's slowed down, it went into like slow motion. 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:54.200 I was just trying to keep her alert and awakened 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:56.320 talking to me. So I had my hand kind of 0:17:56.400 --> 0:17:59.320 underneath her neck to kind of have her like look 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:02.080 at me and talked me. And I felt blood underneath 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:05.480 her neck. I could tell that's where she had been shocked, 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:08.920 and uh yeah, I just sat there kind of screaming 0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:12.560 and yelling for police to come. By this point, Dennis 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:16.720 said the square had emptied. It was scary quiet after 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:22.000 the shooting because everybody was gone. There wasn't a soul 0:18:22.640 --> 0:18:28.199 around me. Phoenix was gone too. He had taken off 0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:30.840 in pursuit of the person he had seen crouching, who 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:33.639 he thought was the gunman. He tore down the street 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:36.640 past the confused onlookers, and he says he ran into 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:39.800 the cops who were arriving on the scene, and I'm like, yeah, 0:18:39.800 --> 0:18:42.040 the shooting with this way, and the cops like hold 0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:47.400 up Phoenix. Phoenix says the police wanted to wait for backup. 0:18:47.840 --> 0:18:50.680 I'm like, that's ridiculous. I didn't come into this game 0:18:50.760 --> 0:18:52.480 to play these rules and like do this ship like 0:18:53.200 --> 0:18:56.040 but it was too late. It's mathematically not intelligent to 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:58.119 run around a blind corner into the dark with the 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:01.080 doodoo as a weapon. But it could have done it 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:04.520 if I kept going when I started it, if I 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:09.440 hadn't stopped. I wanted to do something, you know, we 0:19:09.480 --> 0:19:14.960 all got just up to do something. In the body 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:18.119 cam footage available online, Phoenix talks to the police a 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:20.320 few times, but I couldn't hear the cops telling him 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:23.440 to turn back either way. Phoenix says he'd lost sight 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:26.120 of the man he was chasing, and he blames himself 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:33.960 for giving up the chase back at the intersection on 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:36.959 Yesler Way. Dennis says he sat with Nicole and her 0:19:36.960 --> 0:19:41.520 boyfriend until the ambulance arrived. The couple had just moved 0:19:41.560 --> 0:19:45.119 to Seattle three weeks earlier. Nicole had just started class 0:19:45.160 --> 0:19:47.520 as in a culinary program at the Art Institute, and 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:50.600 her boyfriend had recently been hired at a screen printing shop. 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:53.840 They were out that night to celebrate their good fortune 0:19:54.119 --> 0:19:56.600 and landing a job and starting a new life together 0:19:56.640 --> 0:20:01.280 in the city. When the ambulance arrived, Nicole was alive 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:06.240 but in critical condition. Dennis watched the medics pull away 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:09.560 and walked back to his hotel with his shirt covered 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:14.159 in blood. I remember seeing like a he's dressed up 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:17.560 like a superhero ocape. You know you're in downtown Seattle. 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:21.520 It's another crazy guy dressed up in a costume. I 0:20:21.520 --> 0:20:24.120 I really didn't think anything of it. It's all gonna 0:20:24.160 --> 0:20:28.760 stay with me, probably forever. Um. It just changes you 0:20:28.880 --> 0:20:34.399 when something like that happens. Phoenix says that after he 0:20:34.440 --> 0:20:37.000 gave up his pursuit of the gunman, he returned to 0:20:37.040 --> 0:20:39.560 the scene of the shooting. The cops wouldn't let me 0:20:39.640 --> 0:20:41.240 leave because I was the key witness of the thing, 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:43.439 and I'm sitting there on the curb right there, like 0:20:43.520 --> 0:20:47.080 on the corner. And then after a little bit of time, 0:20:47.480 --> 0:20:52.040 like the crime tape, they just take the crime tape down, 0:20:54.359 --> 0:20:57.040 and then I'm sitting there and I'm just just me 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:02.919 and I'm just like sitting next to this pile of 0:21:02.920 --> 0:21:07.960 blood on the street in my suit. And it's like 0:21:08.000 --> 0:21:11.840 the morning, and like people are coming to work and 0:21:11.840 --> 0:21:16.280 like living their lives and doing their thing. And then 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:23.359 like maybe like seven, a firetruck comes by and just 0:21:24.080 --> 0:21:29.240 sprays all the blood into the drain. And that was it, 0:21:31.680 --> 0:21:38.879 you know what I mean. Like nothing got fixed, nothing 0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:44.800 got solved, None of us helped in any way. The 0:21:44.920 --> 0:21:50.800 shooter never got captured. We all just didn't do our job. 0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:04.120 Nicole never regained consciousness. She died in the hospital three 0:22:04.160 --> 0:22:08.040 days after she was shot. It's still an unsolved case. 0:22:08.880 --> 0:22:11.640 Her family keeps a Facebook page running, hoping for new 0:22:11.680 --> 0:22:15.960 information that might lead to an arrest. There are just 0:22:16.040 --> 0:22:27.240 moments in your life that you are never going to forget. Um. 0:22:27.280 --> 0:22:29.360 I took a long portion of my life and dedicated 0:22:29.359 --> 0:22:33.159 it stopping bad people from doing bad things. And I 0:22:33.200 --> 0:22:35.000 don't care if people don't like me. I don't care 0:22:35.040 --> 0:22:38.000 if people don't agree with what I did, but I 0:22:38.040 --> 0:22:44.119 live with the repercussions what I did every day. You know. Yeah, 0:22:46.119 --> 0:22:59.440 I'm just realistically, there's nothing Phoenix could have done to 0:22:59.520 --> 0:23:03.560 save no Hole. He was blocked away when the shots 0:23:03.600 --> 0:23:06.240 were fired, but maybe that's why he was so affected 0:23:06.240 --> 0:23:10.080 by it. When Phoenix told me about how he'd been 0:23:10.119 --> 0:23:13.400 inspired by the Night Wind comics as a kid, he'd 0:23:13.440 --> 0:23:17.000 vowed that he would never be helpless again, but when 0:23:17.000 --> 0:23:19.320 it came to the senseless act of violence that ended 0:23:19.320 --> 0:23:22.639 in Nicole Westbrook's life, he was just as powerless as 0:23:22.680 --> 0:23:27.119 everyone else. Several of Phoenix's former teammates told me that 0:23:27.160 --> 0:23:30.399 he was never the same after that night. Ghost, who 0:23:30.520 --> 0:23:33.040 was with Phoenix during the shooting and has known him 0:23:33.080 --> 0:23:37.240 since they were in high school, put it bluntly, that 0:23:37.400 --> 0:23:42.119 was when my friend, in my mind died, and what 0:23:42.240 --> 0:23:44.000 we have now is not who I used to know. 0:23:45.600 --> 0:23:47.960 But he he did used to mean a lot to 0:23:48.000 --> 0:23:51.359