Caged

Suddenly I heard cries. What happened? I looked at my colleague and we closed in to the scene. "Stop!" I shouted as the five fighting figures emerged in front of us. "Stop now!" As we pushed our way to the strugglers one of the coloured men pushed his opponent to the ground and began to beat him like he was never going to stop. As the other two white skins saw us, they retreated and disappeared in the crowd. Should I follow them?
Meanwhile my partner pulled the beating man up from the ground. "Put your arms where I can see them!" I shouted back in the routine of our work. "You are arrested for public fight. You have the right to remain silent- "at that moment the bloody man somehow freed himself from my partners grasp and shoved him to the ground. Shocked we watched as his pulled out a gun from his pocket and loosened the safety with a click. "This is all a big misunderstanding..." cried the man with a maniac like glitter in his eyes. Or was it only the swinging gun, that gave me that impression? "Don't shoot! You're going to let down the gun and take a step back" tried I to calm down the situation. "You don't understand... I can't go to jail! My family wouldn't survive it!" he shouted back and aimed at the beaten and half unconscious man before him on the ground. His hands shook and suddenly all we heard was a loud "bang". The man looked shocked at his gun, then at me and turned to run. "Do something!" cried my colleague. "Damn it, shoot!"
Nearly automatically reacting to the order I ignored all those voices in my head, raised my gun and pulled the trigger.
We left the scene with one corps, one highly wounded, and one lightly wounded. The latter I was assigned to accompany to his new cell. While we walked thoughts swirled in my head. Had I done the right thing? As the coloured man stepped in his new home, he looked at me exhaustedly. "See officer, society can be a vicious thing. It may be I who is in Jail, but you are the one who's caged."
With a snap I closed his door.