INVESTIGATION CATALYST
Witness Statement Tutorial

© 2004 by Starline Software Ltd.

CREATING EVENT BLOCKS FROM STATEMENTS

GENERAL GUIDANCE

This Tutorial for finding EVENT BLOCKS (behaviors or actions) uses Brown's Statement to show how to acquire EBs from people. The challenge is to transfer the mental movie of the experience from Browns head to your head. For this exercise do not arbitrarily reject any EBs in the statement.

EB Numbers refer to the sequence in which the actions are found in the Statement. 'Lean-to' refers to a temporary shanty workers had constructed for shelter against cold. It was located near the Pier Supers office. This would have been determined during a walk-through of the site.

In preparing for a witness interview with Brown, the main focus is on capturing what B did; all Event Blocks should initially start with 'B . . . .' By the time you are finished, you should be able to visualize what Brown did during the time of interest to you - where he went, what data he acquired with his senses, his decisions and - if you are lucky - his rationale for those decisions, and any data he may have altered.

To acquire EBs for developing a description of the incident for the INVESTIGATION CATALYST Matrix, you will want to capture all actions Brown can provide; record each EB starting with an actor name, including B. Brown's statement or interview would be the source.