Three

At the front of the store, Robert Thompson put Zeigler over his shoulder, carried him to the Oakland patrol car, and laid him in the backseat.  Zeigler was acquainted with most of the local cops in West Orange and often encountered Thompson while delivering furniture and making store collections in Oakland.  But the two men were not especially friendly.

Thompson took a moment to look for wounds.  He saw that Zeigler had been shot through the lower right abdomen.  The entrance was at the front; Thompson saw a hole about the size of a quarter where the bullet had entered Zeigler's rust-colored shirt.  The edges of the hole were blackened, and the blood around the wound was dry and dark.  An exit hole, at Zeigler's back, showed no swelling or signs of fresh bleeding.  From the blood around Zeigler's face, Thompson guessed that there might be a head wound, but he checked quickly and found none.

The local hospital was West Orange Memorial, about a mile up Dillard Street.  Thompson told Ficke that he was taking Zeigler, and he accelerated north up Dillard.

"I'm dying," Zeigler said from the backseat as Thompson drove.

"No you're not, you're going to be all right," Thompson told him, and he radioed to the Winter Garden dispatcher that he was en route with a gunshot victim.

They reached the hospital at 9:23: three minutes had elapsed since Thompson sped away from the Van Deventer house.

Thompson got Zeigler to sit up.  He took off Zeigler's gold-rimmed glasses and stuck them into one of the epaulets of his uniform shirt.  He went in and got a gurney.  With the help of a nurse's aide, Thompson lifted Zeigler onto the gurney and pushed him into the examining room.

Thompson returned to his car and got his notebook.  He came back and leaned close to Zeigler.

"Who shot you?" Thompson asked.

According to Thompson's testimony, Zeigler answered, "Charlie Mays."

"Why?" Thompson said.

Zeigler didn't answer.

"Was he trying to rob you?" Thompson said.

"I think so," Zeigler answered.

"Where is Charlie now?"

"Back at the store."

"Did you shoot Charlie?" Thompson asked.

"Yes," Zeigler said.

"With what?"

"My gun," Zeigler said.