Character from The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
A cowardly, politically ambitious CPD detective who accidentally shot and killed Karrin Murphy during the Battle Ground — the most universally despised character in the series.
Rudolph is a career cop who climbed the ranks through political maneuvering rather than competence, and who represents everything wrong with institutional self-interest in the face of genuine crisis. He was attached to Special Investigations early in his career, saw things that terrified him, and responded not by rising to the challenge but by denying what he'd seen, sucking up to the right people, and actively undermining the colleagues who were actually doing the work of protecting Chicago from supernatural threats. During the Battle Ground — when Ethniu and the Fomor were literally tearing Chicago apart — Rudolph was panicking, incoherent, waving a gun he was too scared to use properly. In the chaos, he accidentally discharged his weapon and killed Karrin Murphy. Not in combat. Not heroically. A stupid, meaningless accident caused by a coward with a gun he shouldn't have been holding. Harry nearly killed him on the spot and was only stopped by Butters. Rudolph walked away from the battle that killed Murphy, and the sheer injustice of that — that she died not to a titan or a monster but to the bumbling incompetence of a man who didn't deserve to be in the same room as her — is what makes him the most hated character in the Dresden Files.
Average-looking white guy in a rumpled suit. Forgettable face, nervous eyes, sweaty hands. The kind of cop who got promoted by not making waves. Nothing about him suggests he'd change the course of supernatural history.
Also known as: Rudolph, Detective Rudolph