"I don't have my phone or my bag. The robber took them, but you can verify my story inside the hospital. I just had an appointment. They have all my records." Reynolds ignored him completely.
"How are you going to be a robber when you're paralyzed?" Leonard thought for a second that maybe Reynolds was starting to understand, that maybe the question meant he was listening. "Exactly. That's what I'm trying to tell you. I can't" Reynolds interrupted him, his voice flat and certain.
"Exactly, because you're not paralyzed. Now Neil Reese, stop fooling around." Leonard stared at him in disbelief. "What?" Reynolds reached for his radio and called for backup.
Then he turned back to Leonard, his hand moving to rest on his holster. "Get up, now." A woman nearby, who had seen the whole robbery happen, stepped forward, her voice shaking but clear. "Officer, he's telling the truth. He got robbed and he's in a wheelchair.
He's clearly paralyzed." Another bystander joined in. "We saw the whole thing. The guy in the hoodie robbed him and ran that way." He pointed toward the parking lot.
Reynolds turned toward them, his voice hard. "Stay out of it. I have this under control." He turned back to Leonard and his voice dropped to something colder. "Get up now or I'm dragging you out of that chair myself."
Leonard's voice rose, desperation cutting through. "I'm paralyzed. I can't get up." And that was when Matthew Reynolds lost whatever patience he had left. He grabbed Leonard by the arm and yanked him forward with enough force to pull him out of the wheelchair.
Leonard's body came forward, but his legs didn't respond. They couldn't. He fell hard onto the pavement, his legs twisting beneath him in ways that would have hurt if he could feel them, and pain shot through his lower back where his injury was. He hit the ground and immediately shouted, his voice breaking, "I can't walk. This is assault."