That had been enough for the officer to decide she did not belong.
She looked at herself for several seconds.
Then kept walking.
The first investigation began before she returned upstairs.
The officer was identified as Lieutenant Richard Harlan, twenty-four years with the Metropolitan Police Department.
He was not normally assigned inside the federal courthouse.
A high-profile terrorism sentencing later that afternoon had created an unusually large security operation involving U.S. Marshals, court security officers, federal protective personnel, and local police managing traffic and the public perimeter.
Harlan had volunteered for overtime.
His written assignment placed him at the eastern public entrance and exterior vehicle-control post.
At 8:42 that morning, a supervisor temporarily moved him inside because heavy rain caused crowding near screening.
He was instructed to assist with public traffic.
Not secure judicial corridors.
At 9:11, he left his designated position.
At 9:14, a camera showed him following Judge Cole after she passed through a controlled door using a judicial credential.
That detail mattered immediately.
She had not slipped through behind someone.
She had not entered an unlocked corridor accidentally.
The electronic access log showed her judicial credential opening the door.
The security camera showed a green indicator illuminate.
Harlan apparently saw her enter.
Then followed before the door closed.
Body-camera audio captured his first words.
“Hey. Red suit.”
Judge Cole turned.
“Yes?”
“Public elevators are the other direction.”
“I’m going to chambers.”
“You can’t be back here.”
“I can.”
“Turn around.”
Judge Cole stopped walking.
That was important too.
She obeyed the stop instruction.
Harlan approached.
“Identification.”
She reached inside her blazer.
Harlan’s hand went to his holster.
“Hands!”
She froze.
“My credential is inside my jacket.”
“Slow.”
She slowly withdrew the federal wallet.
Before she could open it fully, Harlan knocked her hand sideways.
The credential fell.
He looked down.