An area man (or possibly a tourist) known for being on an escalator in a mall and remembered for his presence in the wrong place at the wrong time, has died.
The cause was multiple gunshot wounds from several different firearms, coming from many different directions, fired by various men, good and bad.
The international jewel smugglers and arms dealers that contributed to the final moments of the victim were rushing away from a foiled attempt at a heist of some sort, trailed by a maverick cop who didn't play by the rules and his long-suffering sidekick/partner. In a lagging pursuit were a no-nonsense guy from the Bureau, and several hapless uniformed cops.
At this time, the victim was traveling alone down the escalator in the mall where this chase was heading. He had purchased nothing, or at least carried no bags. He was alone, or at least there was no one that stuck around after the shots started flying. He had spent the day being unnoticed, and was blandly being shuttled to his demise.
Abruptly running the wrong way UP the 'down' escalator, the international criminals encountered the victim mid way up, knocking him down almost long enough for interested passers-by to note the details of his face, but not quite. From the bottom of the escalators, the maverick cop started firing, unfortunately clipping the victim, who was trying to get up.
Noting that their escape was being hampered by hot lead from behind, they picked up the victim and used him as a human shield while firing over his shoulder. The rounds continued to pump into the victim's chest, possibly rendering him dead at this point.
"POLICE!" yelled the police, who took up tactical positions and also commenced firing, wounding (at least) the victim in the cranial region repeatedly, and the now-crouching international criminals, who responded by indiscriminately spraying the immediate area with small-arms fire, hoping to kill enough people to permit escape. During this fray, the maverick cop's long-suffering partner, who was one day from retirement, was mortally wounded.
At this point, the criminals were completely surrounded by law enforcement, who were firing at will at the victim, propped up like a grisly rag doll while the cowardly villains crouched behind him, occasionally taking pot shots. It seemed for a while there that the victim was being kept upright only by the overwhelming amount of bullets impacting him from so many directions, despite being quite dead.
The no-nonsense suit from the Bureau arrived unheralded at the top of the escalator (it remains a mystery how), and decided that enough was enough, dammit, upon which he produced a white phosphorus grenade, which he activated and tossed into the bleeding, quivering mass of flesh in the center of the escalator. A large explosion with resultant skin-clinging fire was the result, putting a final finish on what remained of the victim at this point, but allowing the international criminals to escape in the confusion, somehow, despite being badly wounded themselves.
The maverick cop was consoling his dying partner and cursing God at this time, the few surviving uniformed cops were running toward the exits, and the no-nonsense Bureau man threw down his riot helmet and yelled "DAMMIT!!!".
Remembrances of this immediately-forgotten man were unavailable, as at that point the story-arc moved into a subplot about the maverick cop's ballbreaking ex-wife being killed -and his adorable grade-school age daughter kidnapped- by the international criminals, leading to an exciting standoff at a recognizably famous national monument.
