The Sound of Failure
The ShotSpotter system is a gunshot-detection system. In Erie, Pennsylvania, it sent an alert. A simple function. A reported sound, an alert; the kind of sequence that fits neatly in a sentence.
At 4:52 p.m. on October 9, police received a report of shots fired and people shot. Officers arrived about three minutes after the ShotSpotter alert. The shooting happened on the 700 block of Perry Street. The report says all of the deaths occurred before officers arrived. That’s the mechanism laid bare: alert, response, a fact already past tense.