A police officer is accused of planting a gun on an unarmed African-American youth that he shot. The victim was beloved in his community, but the investigation reveals that he may have also ... Read allA police officer is accused of planting a gun on an unarmed African-American youth that he shot. The victim was beloved in his community, but the investigation reveals that he may have also been a drug dealer.A police officer is accused of planting a gun on an unarmed African-American youth that he shot. The victim was beloved in his community, but the investigation reveals that he may have also been a drug dealer.
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis episode appears to be based on several separate cases/incidents:
- The 1985 Edmund Perry case. Perry was a 17-year-old Harlem resident and a graduate from the prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy who was shot to death by undercover New York plainclothes police officer Lee Van Houten on June 12, 1985. Van Houten maintained that Perry--and another black youth, later identified as Edmund's brother Jonah--attempted to mug him and that he shot in self-defense. The case briefly generated a firestorm of protest in New York City when it was revealed that Perry was an honor student and was enrolled to attend Stanford on scholarship. However, witnesses backed up Van Houten's claim that Perry and Jonah had attempted to mug the officer, and the shooting was ruled as justified. Jonah was then arrested and charged as an accomplice to the mugging, but he was found not guilty at trial.
- The 1973 Clifford Glover case. Glover was a 10-year-old African American boy who was fatally shot by Thomas Shea, an on-duty, undercover policeman, on April 28, 1973. Glover's death, and Shea's later acquittal for a murder charge, led to riots in the South Jamaica section of Queens, New York.
- The 1975 Bernard Whitehurst case. Whitehurst was shot in the back and killed on December 2, 1975 by Donald Foster, a Montgomery, Alabama police officer who said he thought Whitehurst was the suspect in the robbery of a neighborhood grocery store. In a subsequent cover-up, police officers planted a gun on him. The initial police report said that Whitehurst fired a gun at the officers, and the police returned fire. There was no autopsy and the body was quickly embalmed before the family was contacted; the coroner relied on police reports that Whitehurst was killed by a bullet fired through the chest. Six months later, after an investigation by the local newspaper and local attorney Donald Watkins raised questions about the facts of the case, the District Attorney ordered the body to be exhumed and an autopsy performed, which showed that Whitehurst had been shot in the back. A perjury indictment was issued for three police officers. Eight police officers were forced to resign or were terminated. No police officer was convicted of a crime. The attempted cover-up led to the resignation of the mayor and the Director of Public Safety.
- The 1986 Mark Davidson case.
- GoofsGreevy tells Reverend Thayer that Tommy Richardson was shot 'the other night'; but the time stamp before the scene reads August 7th, whereas the time stamp for the previous scene read July 21st.
- Quotes
Det. Mike Logan: Somebody heard that shot?
Policeman #1: In this neighborhood? You couldn't get a witness to a sunrise.
- ConnectionsReferences Sudden Impact (1983)
Featured review
It doesn't sit right
I agree with the Internal Affairs cop who said it was an ironic day indeed when their department is willing to give a shooting of a black teen by a veteran cop a once over, but the precinct won't. The one with whom this doesn't sit right is George Dzundza and he's got a job he even convincing partner Chris Noth to back him up. But Noth does come around.
Police officers John Finn and Jack Gwaltney from their patrol car spot a drug deal in progress and give chase as the participants split up. Gwaltney gives up his pursuit when he hears shots fired. Finn has shot down a kid who has a magnum in his hand and the other has taken off.
I won't go into it all, but the whole thing stinks on ice to Dzundza. Finn has had several complaints against him. The deceased was a community hero of sorts, going to Princeton.
In the end it's tragedy all around. The deceased was not quite the role model the neighborhood made of him. And Finn who might have been severely disciplined blew it by trying a cover-up.
Besides those mentioned there's also a good performance coming from Al Freeman, Jr. as the pastor of the church the deceased and his family went to. Ditto for the survivors of the incident the deceased's younger brother Richard Haversham and Erik King the street wise drug dealer who finds his life turned inside out with this whole affair.
Police officers John Finn and Jack Gwaltney from their patrol car spot a drug deal in progress and give chase as the participants split up. Gwaltney gives up his pursuit when he hears shots fired. Finn has shot down a kid who has a magnum in his hand and the other has taken off.
I won't go into it all, but the whole thing stinks on ice to Dzundza. Finn has had several complaints against him. The deceased was a community hero of sorts, going to Princeton.
In the end it's tragedy all around. The deceased was not quite the role model the neighborhood made of him. And Finn who might have been severely disciplined blew it by trying a cover-up.
Besides those mentioned there's also a good performance coming from Al Freeman, Jr. as the pastor of the church the deceased and his family went to. Ditto for the survivors of the incident the deceased's younger brother Richard Haversham and Erik King the street wise drug dealer who finds his life turned inside out with this whole affair.
helpful•40
- bkoganbing
- Aug 1, 2017
Details
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content