Two officers stepped out of their cruiser. One of them was an older white male, approximately mid-forties. The other officer was a young light skinned Hispanic. He was in his mid-twenties, just about David's age, maybe just a bit younger. They stepped out of the cruiser and headed towards the entrance of the house when Claudia came out with David, Cheeto and Sammy following.

"Hello officers, I'm glad you came so soon.." started Claudia.

"Evening ma'm, are you the owner of the home?" interrupted the older officer.

"Uhhm no but I'm the one who called," she replied.

"Can we please see the home owner," said the officer again not really listening to what she had to say.

"You called about the noise complaint?" asked the younger officer.

"Noise complaint?" countered the befuddled Claudia.

"Hahaha, they aint even here for you girl!" laughed Cheeto seeing Claudia's expression.

"You are here for a noise complaint? I called over forty-five minutes ago to report an assault and you are here for a noise complaint?" she begun to go off on them.

"Ma'm are you the home owner, we need to ask the owner to turn the noise down. The neighbors are complaining that it's too loud," continued the officer.

"They here for a noise complaint yo! Doña Lupe they here to ask you to turn yo noise down!" shouted off Cheeto.

"I'm one of the tenants here," quietly approached someone from the crowd.

"Unbelievable! Some punk kids just started trouble here, attacking and harassing us and you are more concerned about how loud the music is!" busted out Claudia.

"Ma'm I'm going to have to ask you to keep it down. I'll get to you in a minute," said the older officer.

"Are you kidding me right now?" Claudia said even more agitated so David had step in.

"Ok come over Claudia, let's give them some room before they end up taking you in," said David half-jokingly.

"This is unbelievable, no wonder we are in the condition we are in," Claudia continued. She was ready to turn free from David, who attempted to pull her to the side, and confront the officer again when the younger officer approached them.

"Hello m'am," stated the young officer.

"Don't call me m'am!" she replied.

"Ok how should I address you?" he asked her.

"Miss Montes. Miss Montes de 'Oca!" she replied sure of herself. She had never had anybody address her as such.

The young officer cracked a subtle grin that went unnoticed by her since she was still focused on the other officer giving the warning more importance than her report.

"Ok Miss Montes de'Oca. I'm Officer Garcia and that is my partner Officer Roberts" he addressed her with perfect pronunciation.

"I understand you called us as well to report an aggravated assault incident is that correct?" he continued as respectfully and calmly as possible.

"Yes but apparently that is not as important as a noise complaint!" Claudia stated, hoping Officer Roberts heard. Which he did but did not acknowledge her.

"No, of course not, we try to address all issues with the same level of urgency. So why don't you tell me what the situation is so that we can find a way to resolve it for you," he tried to reassure her. It took Claudia a moment to settle herself down to respond to Officer Garcia with the same courtesy he was trying to display to her.

"So about an hour ago some idiots who were not invited to the party, I'm almost sure of, came in to the party drunk, and probably high or both, and started harassing all of the women they could. I mean some were just girls and they kept shouting obscenities, and all sorts of disgusting things. Eventually we had enough and walked over to ask them to leave. Well my friend Cheeto went over," she started relating.

"Aqui, pa servirle (Present, at your service)," said Cheeto.

"Right, well they started to insult and attack him!" she continued trying to not miss a thing.

"Ay ni tanto, ni tanto (wasn't that bad, wasn't that bad)," interjected Cheeto.

"Yes they did!" she emphasized.

"We was just playing around. A little rough housing is all," Cheeto said with a sly chuckle.

"So you know the alleged aggressors?" inquired officer Garcia.

"Yes he does," answered Claudia.

"I'm going to need their names after you finish telling me the details," Officer Garcia replied.

"Oh they are not 'alleged' but I'll get to that. Ok well after they finished beating up my friend, I tried to intervene and get them to leave, but they said they wouldn't and one of them showed me a knife and threatened to 'cut' me with it in front of everybody. Another one showed me some drugs he had and I'm sure they were all minors and intoxicated," Claudia went on relating the ordeal.

"So this, minor" started Officer Garcia.

"Cheeto what's that boys' name you know him," pressured Claudia.

Cheeto looked at her with a slight sense of betrayal. She was putting him on the spot and though he knew the right thing to do was answer, it didn't feel right to him.

"T.J. I don't know the rest," Cheeto said hesitantly.

"T.J. hmm," the name was familiar to the officer.

"Yes him, he shows up to the youth center from time to time," Claudia continued. "You know who he is?" she asked the Officer.

"He sounds familiar but we are going to need more details that that," he said.

"Well they started to surround us and I really thought they were going to do something stupid to us. That's when my friend here started talking to them. Which I'm glad he did because that took attention away from us, but then they started to attack him," Claudia continued.

"Why did they attack him? Was it you that they attacked? Come here Sir what is your name?" asked now officer Roberts who had finished with his warning about the noise complaint.

David complied mostly out of professional courtesy but he really didn't feel any desire to do so.

"Yes sir that was me. My name is David Zamorra," he said in the American form, not rolling his r's.

"Why does he need to give you his name, I already told you who to look for?" asked Cheeto noticeably aggravated.

"I'm just trying to get all the facts straight, if you didn't do anything wrong you don't have anything to hide then," Officer Roberts stated looking into his note pad not once looking into anyone's face.

"I told them that they wouldn't get what they wanted and that they should leave. I called one of them a bitch and he lunged at me," David stated.

"So they were standing around by themselves, you approached them, instigated them and they attacked you," reasoned Officer Roberts.

"They weren't standing around by themselves! They were bothering everyone that got near them," urged Claudia in her clarification.

"But you approached them, and provoked a confrontation that led to an altercation is that correct?" Officer Roberts asked in a form more suited as a statement.

"No, that's not correct! You are making it sound like it was our fault. They had weapons and drugs with them and threatened to use them," Claudia sounded off almost too fast for her own mouth to say the words.

"Can anybody corroborate this? Were the weapons used?" Officer Roberts pressed.

"Uhm, us three, hello we just told you," Claudia replied sarcastically, gesturing with her arms and visibly agitated by the apparent disbelief of the officer.

"Ma'm please keep calm. You three were involved in the incident. Besides you three is there anybody else who can confirm this?" he asked again.

"Yes, everyone here!" almost shouted Claudia pointing at everyone in the house.

"Can anybody come forward?" asked officer Roberts but no one did. People would look down to the ground or just turn around and go inside.

"Nobody seems to be coming forward," he said with the air of confidence of someone who knew the outcome ahead of time and almost taunting the disbelief in Claudia's eyes.

"Did they use their weapons on you?" Officer Roberts asked again with no apparent interest in her response, just following a script.

"No they didn't get a chance cuz home boy here whooped them so fast!" jumped in Cheeto animated as always, his humor and joy of life seeming unquenchable.

Officer Roberts sighed slightly and shook his head ever so slightly as he wrote this down.

"Is that what takes for this to matter? For one of us to have gotten shot?" Claudia asked visibly frustrated.

"No of course not Mrs. Montes de'Oca, we just need as many details to write our report and put in a formal case against these individuals at fault," said Officer Garcia.

"It's just our job to be impartial. The other parties involved are not here to tell their side, so we have to get all the information we can get," Officer Garcia continued in an effort to ease the frustration that was visible in her eyes.

"Well they are not here for a reason, what does that tell you?" she said expecting the obvious be understood by the officers.

"Right now that tells us that according to you they were being a nuisance, who nobody else will collaborate. That you approached and initiated an argument, which resulted in an altercation with the individuals in question," Officer Roberts replied in an accusing manner.

"We did not start the fight!" shouted out Claudia, the frustration now frothing into anger.

"M'am one last time I'm going to ask you to calm down!" Officer Roberts said sternly and profiling himself in a defensive stance.

"Ok, ok let's all calm down," intervened David pulling Claudia back.

"Let me talk to him from now on," he told Claudia.

"But this isn't right we are the victims!" she said as he pulled her away.

"Mrs. Montes de'Oca, hi, why don't you talk to me," sympathized officer Garcia.

"It's ok I have her," he said addressing officer Roberts who was now addressing David.

"Mrs. Montes de'Oca..." started Officer Garcia.

"It's Claudia, just say Claudia, you sound ridiculous," she interrupted him.

"Claudia, I can see you are frustrated but you are doing the right thing. We will now do our part and make sure that whomever attacked you will get what they deserve," tried to reassure Officer Garcia.

"Thank you but your partner doesn't seem to think that way. I have called the police before and I've never felt like this before. I feel like I'm a criminal trying to prove my innocence and that doesn't seem right," she explained letting out her frustration out as well.

"I understand that is how it can feel some times, but this is just procedure. I'm glad you have called the police in the past. It means you believe in us and what we do. I will make sure to keep that faith in us alive," said Officer Garcia with the zeal and enthusiasm of fresh recruit.

"We'll call it in, put in a report, but without anyone else coming forward, or without the weapons, they can say any altercation was started by you or that they felt threatened. We probably will not be able to hold them for long. We'll take some pictures as evidence of the confrontation. But with all the other violent crimes they will probably be released within a few hours, and if they are minors, as it seems they are, then it will probably be even less," said Officer Roberts blunt and cold as an officer in his second decade would.

"So what is the point then!" belted out Cheeto chuckling at the absurdity of it all.

"The point is next time don't take the law into your own hands and let us handle it," Officer Roberts replied.

"But it takes you forever to get here and it was fast. Man, what we supposed to bleed out before you guys get here?" replied Cheeto.

"Next time just think before you act. If they are dangerous elements don't blindly approach them. Let them be and call us," the officer said dismissively.

"Ah paraque no vengan y luego le echen a uno la culpa, puras pendejadas (so that nobody comes and then blame us, it's all bullshit)," said Cheeto as he threw his hand up and stated walking away.

Claudia was so frustrated and disillusioned that she was fighting back tears and a knot in her throat. She just looked away.

"You still did well by calling us. We thank you and promise you we'll do everything we can to get to the bottom of this and make sure justice is served," tried to come back officer Garcia.

"Thank you," is all Claudia could say, not really putting much faith in it.

The officer's radio called in an emergency. Officer Roberts responds to dispatch using technical protocols.

"We have to go, shooting at the 800 block on Southern," he informed Officer Garcia who nods in response.

"Don't worry Claudia, I'll look into this, promise!" said Officer Garcia parting.