Officer Blue


Officer Blue

Season	1
Number	9
Writer	Anthony E. Zuiker
Director	Darin Serafian
Original Airdate	December 1, 2004
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Officer Blue is the ninth episode in season one of CSI: NY.

Synopsis

After mounted officer Valasquez is shot down in the park, Mac goes looking for the bullet that killed the officer only to learn that it is lodged in the horse's spine and cannot be removed without being fatal to the horse. The investigation leads them to a local street vendor, but stalls when the D.A. asks Mac not to do anything to risk the horse until after the woman who donated it has a chance to say goodbye.

Plot

It seems like a quiet day at the park. Two horse cops are riding. This man attacks an old man, one cop rushes over to the scene. That officer is shot, and his horse runs almost running over a baby and then gets hit by a taxi, while the officer is hurting. The horse is still alive, and gets up. Flack and Mac are on the scene. Flack is freaking, saying that he heard the shot from 6th avenue (a good ways away). Flack and Mac look at the body. Flack finds his badge on the ground. Mac comments he was shot in the back and it went right through its protective vest. They have a sniper.

The horse is led out. Mac tells flack to start getting statements. He tells people to canvas rooftops. And he says no one sleeps until the shooter gets caught. The entire team joins Mac. Stella is going to be with him, while Danny and Aiden are to process. We see people searching for the bullet, which is of prime importance. Officers walking in lines while others use metal detectors. Mac finds a cell phone Stella comes back saying they couldn’t find the bullet. Then Mac tells her to have Danny get tapes from all available cameras, to see if they caught something.

Hawkes is talking to Mac over the cop’s body. COD single gunshot wound from the back and a downward trajectory. Mac then looks at the vest. After placing it on a dummy, he finds it’s at 30 degree angle. He places it as if it’s on a horse The bullet is in the horse. Mac talks to Dr. Huff who examined the horse, who says he has been hurt and didn’t find a bullet. The horse is still very upset. They put the horse on a cat scan, and Mac finds the bullet, Dr. Huff is with him. Removal will most likely kill the horse. The doctor is very upset but agrees.

Aiden and Danny use a camera to check out the surrounding area. Aiden, Danny and Stella are in the lab with the computer footage they just caught. Mac comes in and hands her another case, a DOA at 94th and Lex. Using the information they place the cab and TV. The trajectory is from the Patterson building 9 up 3 across.

Aiden arrives on her scene, detective Thacker is there. Lenny Starks is the vic, he is 19. scratches on hinge of his sunglasses. He has a burn on his face, the cop is checking out her ass. She calls him on it for not being respectful.

Mac and Stella are in the Patterson building. They enter the office they found there, and find GSR on the windowsill. Mac is acting it out with his flashlight, seeing where the sniper was. There is a fingerprint on the window, on the outside. The dust it and get the print. Mac and Stella check for the print, and flack comes in. he says he got nothing. The print comes up Richard Smockton, an animal activist with a record for disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly.

Stockton is in cuffs. He is with Mac, Stella and flack and pleads with him to help the animals. He claims he was in that building months ago. He is sweaty, and is shocked about the cop shooting. he has a goiter had it for years, his hands are shaking; he has grave’s disease but couldn’t be the shooter since he’s. Hawkes is with Aiden. COD is most likely trauma to the head. There is a void in the burn that happened recently. She grabs some tissue to examine it.

Mac and Danny are using facial recognition on the youth who assaulted the elderly man. They use markers to find him mug shot database. He was in the system for peddling. He is on the cell phone and it seems as if he’s lining himself up. Then picks the fight for no reason. They get his address.

Flack approaches the guy, William Chancey, he runs for it. Flack however catches him as a cop car heads him of. Chancey is questioned by flack Mac and Stella. They ask him about the cell phone, and says that a British tourist was harassing him. But they tell him that know he came at the old man. He claims he was on the phone with a woman and they let him know they traced it to a disposable phone. But Mac and Stella get up and say he’s ready to go. Tom Mitford, DA is here to ask Mac to not put down the horse immediately. Since the horse was donated by a widow of a cop. Mac however says he can’t promise anything because if they find the weapon they need the bullet.

Mac meets with Stella. Stella says that Chancey is back on the street and that Flack got a signal off of Chancey’s cell phone. The live signal is in queens heading to LaGuardia. On the plane, there is a message about turning off cell phones. Flack Stella and Mac enter and there is a phone ringing. They get him to answer and Stella’s on the other line. They interrogate him and tell him the information about the two phone connections. He claims ignorance and wrong number. He says they need a warrant, but they already have one. He says he doesn’t have a car and that he took a cab. Stella makes him take out his hand and she pads him down.

Aiden is with a trace tech and the stuff on the kid’s face was baker’s yeast and cornmeal. This leads her to believe pizza place. Which leads Aiden to a pizza place by the murder: Sly’s Pizza Parlor. The girl has a burn on her hand and claims it was days ago, but it was recent. She closes the place and prints the oven handle. Nick Vincenzio creeps up on her and asks how she’s doing. He asks her some questions, and he shows her a gun telling her shop is closed now. There are big men at the door, and they close the door. She takes her kit and leaves.

Mac is in the office, Jane walks in. he is trying to save the horse, by making a 3d replica. He compares the bullet to a chart, it’s a Military surplus SS-109 round. Mac and Stella argue about the bullet and the horse, and Mac forcibly tells her he is not taking the bullet out of the horse. He claims they need both the bullet and the weapon. And she claims they need the bullet now. Stella enters the house of Jerald Browne (the man on the plane). As she searches, she finds various gun parts stocked in random places throughout the home. She goes back to the lab and assembles the gun back into place. She walks into Mac, and places it on the desk. It was unmodified. She tells him they need to get the bullet out of the horse. She looks at him angrily.

Mac, Stella, Dr. Huff, Mandi and Jenny Como (Mandi and jenny are the donators of the horse) are in front of the stall. Jenny the little girl gives the horse a carrot. They try and comfort Blue, the horse. Aiden is discussing what happened with Mac who tells her she did the right thing. But he tells her to go back with backup. The pizza place was a backing for sports betting. Dr. Huff informs Stella, Mac and Mandi Como that the surgery was a success and Blue will make it. None of the men they tested for GSR came out positive. The gun they fired from the rifle was not a match to that in the horse. Nothing is making sense. Then Mac gets a call.

In the airport garage they were looking for Jerald brown’s car but found Chancey’s instead, and inside the trunk was Chancey dead and beaten. Stella and Danny are with the car in the CSI garage and they discover he was shot in the trunk. Danny finds evidence there might be a secret compartment- ac on, windshield wipers and radio full blast- it was a combination. They search and find a compartment and try every combination with those. Nothing, in frustration Danny slams on the horn. The compartment opens and there is another AR-15 in it, in pieces.

Aiden is back at the pizza parlor with police backup this time. She is now the one calling the shots. Detective Thacker is helping her to run things. The pizza girl looks sullen. Vincenzio goes to get up, but Thacker makes him sit down. She makes the girl put her finger on the picture. It matches the void on the kid’s face. They try things out; it wasn’t the girl who did it. It was the guy.

Aiden is interrogating him. And she informs him they are closing his sports betting pizzeria, reminding him sports betting in NYC is illegal. She tells him he beat him up then stabbed him. He admits to slamming the kids face with the oven door, but he denies stabbing the kid. But then she informs him she was lying, and it’s legal to lie to suspects to get them to confess and informs him the cause of death was the trauma on the head. He killed him. He is going to jail.

Stella prints the guns then test fires it. The striations match. They interrogate Jerald Brown. Who’s a marksman. He was demoted after disobeying orders. He claims he was right and would do it again. Mac piles the facts they have against him. Military record has him at interim secret, about as smart as they come. He murdered him because his father, Willie’s uncle was charged on drug charges by a crooked cop, and shivved in jail before he could get a court date. He just picked any cop. An eye for an eye. Mac ends it there saying he should be shot to death, an eye for an eye. Mac and Stella are getting dressed for the funeral and she apologizes for being so angry about the horse.

Cast

Main Cast

Guest Cast

Kanin Howell as Lenny Starks
Erin O'Connor as Mandi Como
Elle Fanning as Jenny Como
Barry Del Sherman as Richard Smockton
Jude Ciccolella as Nick Vicenzo
Denice J. Sealy as Raquel Trinidad
Joleigh Fioreavanti as Pizza Girl
Charles Hutchins as British Tourist
Ara Anton as Pedestrian
Juddson Keith Linn as Officer Valasquez
Stig Eldred as Thug #1
Paul Carafotes as Det. Charlie Thacker
Gabriel Casseus as Jerald Brown
Terry Kinney as District Attorney Tom Mitford
Jim Metzler as Dr. Huff

Notes

Officer Blue earned a Golden Reel nomination in the Sound Effects and Foley for the Short Form category.
Charles Hutchins, who plays the role of the British tourist, also appears in the CSI episode A Kiss Before Frying.
Jude Ciccolella, who plays Nick Vicenzo, also appears in the CSI episode Shock Waves.

Music

"Splinter" by Kenny Inglis.
"Urban Angel" by Cinephile.

Quotes

Stella: We haven't had a fight like that in a long time. Reminds me of the old Mac Taylor.
Mac: What old Mac Taylor is that?
Stella: The one who let his heart out of his chest every once in awhile.