Bad Guy #2

"Axe-Wielding Maniac Goes On a Rampage In the Dusseldorf Train Station. Possible Accomplice Still On the Loose."

Current event from last week.

But you get that a lot in the initial reports from some act of carnage.  Where the police are looking for a second shooter or second suspect.  It's common.  Also common is for this second person to be a phantom, and the original criminal acted alone.  Seems it's that way more often than not.

It's like a real life Trope at this point, played out on the news instead of my major network sitcom.

"SWAT combs neighboring parking garage looking for a second shooter"

"Police advise people to avoid the area and to shelter in place as they search for the second perpetrator that shot up the Discovery Building"

Now I don't blame the police for chasing after ghosts.  They are doing it out of an abundance of caution.  All they have to go on is what excited witnesses on the confused scene tell them.  "I heard shots from over there (where victims and maybe the suicided body of the murderer is) but I also think I heard shot from over THERE (maybe an echo or even the brain playing adrenaline tricks on them)"  And off the cops go looking for #2...  Or is it #1?  It's confusing.  But that reporter nearby that over heard the action on the scanner reported what happened as it happened, mebbe

In the rare occasion there is a second dirt bag, if the cops DIDN'T go after rumors of one and look, and that second guy caused more mayhem, the cops would be raked over the coals for it.

But going off on wild goose chases in a high pressure situation because of the tricks the brain plays on unreliable witnesses is just a condition of being human