I'm curios to know if there is legal authority for the government (police) to hold citizens after a mass shooting similar to what happened in Ft Lauderdale. I'm very familiar with Terry and whens wheres whys the police can and cannot detain a citizen, but for big events like these I'm somewhat ignorant. From what I understand about the event in FL, the entire population of the airport were held for hours, bags searched, and IDs and passports may have been taken. People were forced to remain in a place, no food or bathrooms. This started a discussion about whether such actions were actually legal or if everyone just goes along with it because we all like to cooperate after such terrible events.
The police take the shooter down, or into custody, and need to be sure there are no other actors -vs- my right as a citizen to be about my business.
Say I'm in the airport or mall and some whackjob comes in shooting. The police come and put him down. I'm not involved and want to go home, but the police tell me I am not free to leave. By what authority am I being held? If I were to try to push past them would they, and could they, physically prevent me from doing so?
They do not have reasonable artulable suspicion to believe I am involved, so Terry would not apply, but could they rely on the idea that the crime scene was still 'active' and what is the definition of such, and who makes the call?