Which of these two scenarios for my story sounds better?

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I feel there are two ways I can write this scenario.

In the plot, a gang of villains want to recruit a new member, and in order to do that they give the new member a test. He has to kill someone to get in. They give him a bullet loaded with a dummy round, an round that will not fire, and have him pull the trigger in a kidnapped hostage.

Now the new recruit fails to pull the trigger, and gets scared that they will now consider him a liability. He finds out that the gun is empty but he runs and a chase ensues. A cop, the main character who is on patrol, spots this, and calls for back up. 

Or I can write it so that the main character cop picks up on something suspicious long before a chase ensues, such as when the gang goes to meet the new recruit, they search him for a gun or a wire, and the cop sees this from far away while on patrol and then decides to discreetly follow them back to where the test will take place. 

The main cop cannot be allowed to recognize the new recruit though, since the new recruit is a cop he knows, but a crooked cop. But I don't want the MC to know it's him. So he would have to see the weapon and wire search from far away, but not see that it's him.

Does one way of writing it sound better than the other?

Work in elements of both? I really liked the first one. The second one could (with more details) prove to be quite dramatic & wonderful.

Oh okay thanks. What was it about the first one you like more?

Honestly because it seemed simple, but effective.

If the new recruit goes in to shoot the hostage but they see him not shoot, he'd be in trouble; they might try to shoot him and of course his pistol doesn't work because of the dummy round. This would make a pretty neat scenario for a chase scene having to get out of that--you could have him grab another fire-arm or cartridges from a table as he is running, they come after him thinking his gun is empty; he is loading it and shoots, injuring one of them, and the chase is on in deadly earnest.

@ Ironpony: Didn't you already start another thread on a similar topic about a month ago?

Why not just 'bump' the earlier thread?