Cop Killer | |
Season | 3 |
Number | 13 |
Writer | Steven Maeda |
Director | Jonathan Glassner |
Original Airdate | January 17, 2005 |
Navigation | |
Previous Episode: Shootout | |
Next Episode: One Night Stand |
Cop Killer is the thirteenth episode in Season Three of CSI: Miami.
Synopsis[]
During a routine traffic stop, a police officer is murdered and now Horatio and the team must track down the killer. The only witness to the murder is a civilian who was doing a ride-along with the officer, but who is now missing. Roadside evidence leads the CSIs to Missy Marshall, a teenage girl who was with the killer at the time of the murder. However, as the team searches for the civilian and the killer, they find that Missy may have been more involved with the killer and the shooting than she is admitting. Meanwhile, Horatio and Rebecca's relationship is in jeopardy when they don't see eye to eye on a case.
Plot[]
Seventeen-year-old Patrick Brookner is on a ride-along with Officer Rich Insko when Insko pulls over a car with expired plates. Patrick wants to accompany the officer, but Insko tells him to stay in the police cruiser. Insko approaches the stopped car and gets the driver's license. He clips it to his pocket and starts to check his clipboard when two shots are fired from the car and Insko goes down. Patrick looks on in horror.
When Horatio arrives at the scene, Alexx tells him Insko was shot twice: one bullet hit his protective vest; the fatal one hit him in the head. When Horatio notices two coffee cups in Insko's car, he learns that Insko had a ride-along. No one has seen Patrick—the teen is missing. Calleigh notices that there are no casings present and assumes that they must have ended up in the shooter's car. Delko runs the plates and matches them to a black SUV, but the tire treads are too small for an SUV. The plates on the shooter's car were stolen from another vehicle.
In the morgue, Alexx hands Horatio the bullet that was caught in Insko's vest. She notices a piece of plastic on it: part of a Florida driver's license. The bullet went through the license of the driver of the car, which Insko has clipped to his pocket. Calleigh identifies the shooter's car as a Mitsubishi Eclipse based on it's wheel patterns. Patrol officers divert a suspect in a Mitsubishi Eclipse and come up with an unlikely suspect: sixteen-year-old Missy Marshall. Ryan smells ammonia in the backseat of the car—he thinks Patrick was held there, and relieved himself.
Calleigh and Yelina question Missy, who tells them that a man she was with, known as "JoJo," shot the officer. She claims she just met him that morning at the mall. She says she was just going out to get donuts and that JoJo told her if she wasn't back in twenty minutes that he would kill Patrick. Rebecca Nevins interrupts the interrogation, reminding Yelina that they can't question a sixteen-year-old minor without supervision. Yelina bristles, asking if Rebecca is questioning her conduct. She reminds Rebecca that it's her case, and Rebecca counters that eventually it will be hers, and comments that "there seems to be a lot of that going around lately."
Going over the car, Ryan notes that the prints on the wheel are too large to be female, but can't come up with anything else. Horatio tells him to keep at it. Meanwhile, a carjacking suspect named Jake has turned up with Insko's gun. He claims to have found the gun, but Missy identifies him as JoJo. Horatio doesn't believe her. Calleigh examines the gun and finds blood on the handle; if JoJo snatched the gun right after he killed Insko like Missy claims, there would have been no time for blood from Insko's head wound to pool down by the gun on his belt. Jake was telling the truth, meaning he isn't JoJo.
Ryan finds a parking permit for the Faircrest Hotel under the car's hood. The manager recognizes Missy's picture and shows them a picture of the guy who she's been seeing at the hotel for the last few months: John Johnson a.k.a. JoJo. Horatio and Ryan go to JoJo's room, but though he's not there they find evidence that he and Missy were in the habit of robbing convenience stores. Back at CSI, Missy's mom, Carla, has arrived and is in denial about her daughter's deeds. Missy claims JoJo told her that he loved her and needed her.
Calleigh and Ryan go over the mini mart robberies over the last two months and are able to pinpoint two possible targets for JoJo if he's run out of money. Luckily for them, they're right on the money: JoJo has just robbed a mini mart and left Patrick behind, bound with duct tape by the freezer section. Horatio is immediately suspicious that the cashier was nearly beaten to death while Patrick doesn't have a scratch on him. Ryan and Tyler go over the store's surveillance tape and note that JoJo took a box of motion-sickness medicine off the counter. Delko also notices tape marks on the tape used to bind Patrick, as well as the roll that the tape came from. Patrick tied himself up.
Horatio and Delko question the boy, who finally admits he tied himself up. He says he always wanted to be a cop and that he froze up when Insko was shot. When JoJo left him in the store, JoJo told him he wasn't worth the bullet it would take to shoot him. Patrick tells them that he overheard JoJo talking to someone named 'Mr. Fortune.' This clue paired with the anti-nausea medicine leads Horatio and Ryan to the marina, where they catch JoJo on a boat called Mr. Fortune. Ryan pulls the man's driver's license, noting the prominent hole in it. JoJo denies shooting the officer and Ryan notices a burn mark on his face, which he swabs.
Calleigh washes Insko's shirt to see the pattern of GSR on it. Based on the pattern, she determines the shooter had to be three feet away. JoJo was too close in the driver's seat; the shooter was in the passenger seat. Calleigh confronts Missy with the evidence: she shot Insko. The bullet grazed JoJo's face, burning him. Missy is dismissive: she says she didn't plan to kill Insko, but if he'd learned she was a minor he would have kept her away from JoJo. Missy's mother is shaken and blames the incident on JoJo, but Calleigh reminds her that it was Missy who pulled the trigger.
Rebecca tells Horatio that she cut JoJo a deal in order to get him to testify and that he's out on bail. Horatio is upset—JoJo is an accessory. He thinks Rebecca should have relied on their evidence, but she believes she needs a witness. They're interrupted by Yelina who tells them that there's been a shooting at the Faircrest Hotel. When the CSIs arrive, they find JoJo dead in his hotel room. Ryan finds some kind of residue under JoJo's fingernails. He suspects the killer hid in the closet. Calleigh notices a shattered bullet on the floor—the first shot was discharged into the floor, indicating an inexperienced shooter.
When Missy's mother Carla is found blocks from the hotel with a gun, the CSIs think they've found their killer. But she tells them that she was angry but never went to the hotel room, and her gun corroborates her story: it hasn't been fired lately. They next turn their attention to the hotel manager, but he has vast experience with guns and for him to own one would violate his probation. Horatio's suspicion finally lands on Patrick and when he's brought in for questioning, Horatio immediately notices a bullet fragment in his shoe. Sure enough, Patrick is the guilty party: JoJo shattered his dreams of becoming a police officer.
Afterwards, Rebecca tells Horatio that Patrick will be tried as an adult. She suggests dinner, but Horatio turns her down. When he turns her down for dessert, she asks him if this is about what she said to Yelina. He says no and she guesses it's about the deal with JoJo. She stands by her decision, and Horatio stands by his.
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- David Caruso as Horatio Caine
- Emily Procter as Calleigh Duquesne
- Adam Rodríguez as Eric Delko
- Jonathan Togo as Ryan Wolfe
- Khandi Alexander as Alexx Woods
- Sofia Milos as Yelina Salas
Guest Cast[]
- Rex Linn as Frank Tripp
- Christina Chang as Rebecca Nevins
- Brian Poth as Tyler Jenson
- Kirsten Storms as Missy Marshall
- Katherine LaNasa as Carla Marshall
- Trevor Morgan as Patrick Brookner
- Brady Smith as Officer Rich Insko
- Christopher Michael Jones as Jake Mann
- John Doe as Brett Adams
- Alex Nesic as Jojo
- Shelli Bergh as Paula Muro
- S. Zev Esquenazi as Bailiff Martinez
- Hiro Koda as Cashier (uncredited)
Trivia[]
- Jojo's Mitsubishi Eclipse would be reused as the Sideshow Kid's car in High Octane and would later appear in The O.C., Knight Rider (2008), Get Him To The Greek, NCIS: Los Angeles, Southland, Lincoln Heights, and The Hangover. It would be put up for sale in 2019.
See Also []
< Shootout
|
CSI:Miami Season 3 | |
Lost Son • Pro Per • Under the Influence • Murder in a Flash • Legal • Hell Night • Crime Wave • Speed Kills • Pirated • After the Fall • Addiction • Shootout • Cop Killer • One Night Stand • Identity • Nothing to Lose • Money Plane • Game Over • Sex & Taxes • Killer Date • Recoil • Vengeance • Whacked • 10-7 |