Maybe I’m just face-blind or being dense but the photos from the scene of the crime look like a different dude than the ginning hostel check in guy. The jackets and backpacks are different. Although people can have multiple jackets and backpacks. We don’t see much of the shooters face but the eyebrows look different. Although, people can pluck/shave eyebrows. I guess the happy hostel guy would have come forward and been like “WTF?” and “I have an alibi” if it wasn’t him?
Isn’t your “phone call” a Hollywood trope? It’s not like you get to gamble on the highest stakes call of your life (oops, line’s busy or you misdialed or whatever), but you only get one chance like it’s some legal gotcha the cops can pull on a suspect.
At least in Florida, according to this, you are entitled to complete at least one phone call.
It’s too bad that cops are and COs think they are above the law. They WILL steal all your money, they MAY beat you up, and you MAY get a phone call if you behave like you’re their little bitch. They like that.