Factual error: When Axel and Taggart are taken under fire by the gunner with the dark glasses (who is shot by Billy), notice that the gunner stands perpendicular (i.e. at a 90° angle) to the stairs where Axel and Taggart take cover. Yet, two of the bullet holes appear in a column at the base of the stairs which would have come from a different trajectory, namely in line with the stairway and thus from Axel and Taggart's flank.
Factual error: Taggart and Rosewood try to pursue Foley from the hotel but their car stalls from the "banana in the tailpipe", and when Rosewood tries to restart it, it makes the starting sound of an older Chrysler, when the car is actually a Mercury.
Answer: Axel gets knocked out by one of the thugs as soon as he opens the door. His boss later make mention of the fact that he's lucky he didn't get killed too. They probably spared him because he didn't see who hit him and therefore could not tell anyone what they looked like.
XIII