Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

I have written a young adult novel about a girl who grows up in an apocalyptic cult compound and the three months leading up to what her cult believes is the end of the world. The book and it's sequel have just been picked up for publication and in doing my revisions I have a few questions. I would be so grateful for any input members of this site are willing to give and would love to acknowledge those members in the books once they're published. I tried to become a supporting member a few minutes ago-twice, but there were technical difficulties, so I'll have to try again. Thank you in advance! On a side note, the police in the book will be shown as doing their jobs correctly which is why I need to find out these answers.

1. If cult members opened fire on police officers when they approach their compound with a warrant to search the property for illegal firearms(the police have followed typcial procedure in serving the warrant) and injured several officers, what would the likely charge be? The officers survived the shootings, some injured seriously, but not mortally.

2. How would the officers then handle the cult if they were able to breach the cult's outer perimeter and ultimately capture the cult's leader? Especially if the majority of the members had been carrying guns and the police are unsure of exactly who fired the shots that injured the officers in that moment?

3. Would any and all adult members be arrested?


4. If the police that were serving the warrant were local but working together with the ATF, where would the arrested members be taken immediately after their capture?

1. Attempted murder.

2. Harder to answer. It not likely that the police wouldn't have some idea who was doing the shooting.

3. Hard to answer again, it would probably take a lot of sorting out through questioning who had done what and who possessed what firearms and of those, which were legal or illegal. Some info would already be known because that info would have been necessary to get a warrant in the first place.

4. To the local jail. Federal authorities rarely, if ever have their own facilities like that. They book in county or city jails and pay that agency to house the prisoners.