6 NoraNora was on the fourth floor of the five-story modern glass-and-steel federal courthouse on the east bank of the Columbia River in downtown Parma. She hoped this Monday morning session would end her visits to the four-year-old building.
It stood on a section of riverfront that had been ravaged by fire a decade earlier.
The courthouse complex covered the spot where two unarmed civilians had died in the aftermath of the fire. They had been killed by buckshot shells discharged from Parma Police Department-issued riot shotguns.
The four police officers involved in those shootings were with Nora today in the courtroom.
Natural light filtered in between the ribbons of steel covering the glass facade. Enlivened by a blue-green carpet, the three-thousand-foot-square courtroom felt spacio
