Colter, Vince Romano and others in “The Empty Gun”

[in the locker room, changing] Hey, it could have been you killed out there, just as easy as Martinez, remember?

Yeah, well, some of the veterans around here are acting like they wish it had been me.

Well, I heard a lot of them say you screwed up.

[upset] Screwed up? How?

[entering the room with two other officers] You could have wasted that dirtbag, Romano, and you didn't.

He's a juvenile, Benteen.

He is a [claps hands twice] COP KILLER!

I didn't have to shoot!

He's had 18 priors, not a day spent in juvenile hall, a hophead supporting his habit by preying on old people. Now, he's a cop killer.

[standing at the door] I just talked to the shooting team. Martinez's piece was empty when the creep tried to kill Romano and Romano knew it.

[to Romano] Empty?

I counted. He'd fired six times.

There's not a living soul to ask if you would count it with nobody to ever know the difference. You could have blown that cop-killing punk away! All right, hey, okay, look, Lily Blossom, you're never going to make it through probation and you better hope you never find yourself in a spot where you're going to need the help of a real cop.

[angrily pulls Benteen around] Hey! That's the wrong kind of talk around here, Benteen. I suggest you shut your loud mouth and cool off because if I hear it again, I'll put you through the wall.

I owe you, Hooker. [points his thumb at Romano] Not him.

You owe me nothing. I did my job out there. Romano did his. Right now, you're on the edge of not doing yours. Don't you EVER threaten not to back a fellow officer.

[to the other officers] Anybody else got anything to say? [to Romano, as the other officers leave] You didn't tell me you knew the gun was empty.

[upset] Does it make a difference to you that it wasn't?

You did what the book says.

Look, thanks for what you said to Benteen, but I asked you a question. I've got to know! Is there a difference between what we're taught and what goes down on the street? Under the same circumstances, the same dope-headed, cop-killing, dirt-bag punk with an empty gun, would you have wasted him?