Plot hole: When SWAT enters Peters wife's room, the officer reaches for her neck and almost as soon as he touches her, he states "no pulse". This guy's EMT skills are phenomenal! Carotid pulse with a glove on in less than 2 seconds. This guy is good.
Plot hole: When Connick has Hudson hanging in the toilets at the start of the movie he grabs the first cop who tries to help her and says he cannot decide whether he should shoot or stab the cop, choosing eventually to do both. At the end of the movie, the copycat does this as well but he makes a mistake: after grabbing Hunter he tells Hudson about not being able to decide if he should shoot or stab but the copycat already had a dead cop's body placed in the toilet in the exact the same way Connick dropped the cop. This makes Hunter the second cop. For somebody with such an eye for detail, the copycat should have done the 'can't decide' monologue with the first cop in front of Hudson, but he is already dead on the floor when she wakes up.
Answer: She lives to shoot the killer thereby saving Helen. She only plays dead. Or was knocked unconscious. After all she was shot more than once. The vest may have saved her life but it didn't stop her from being out of action for a time.
ChristmasJonesfan