Unusual Suspects

Unusual Suspects
Season	6
Number	21
Writer	John Dove, Wendy Battles
Director	Marshall Adams
Original Airdate	May 12, 2010
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Unusual Suspects is the twenty-first episode in Season Six of CSI: NY

Synopsis

A 14-year-old boy is seriously injured after being shot in an alleyway. His 12-year-old brother witnessed the shooting, but can't give an accurate description of the shooter or what happened to the police.

Plot

Mac introduces Aubrey Hunter to his favorite pizza in the city when they’re distracted by the sound of an ambulance rushing to a nearby location. They follow and discover that a 14-year-old boy, Nicky Harris, has been shot. As Aubrey examines Nicky and helps get him into the ambulance, his shocked 12-year-old brother, Sam, looks on, terrified.

Mac follows Aubrey to the hospital and fills Stella in when he gets there. Nicky & Sam were on their way home from school when they ran into a man who shot Nicky. Flack gently questions Sam and learns that his father died of cancer a few months ago and that Nicky was wearing his dad’s Rolex, which he was not supposed to be wearing at school.

Danny, Lindsay and Hawkes comb the alley and Hawkes finds a gun on top of a trash can. The three of them follow the blood drops to where Nicky was shot and Hawkes discovers a trail of red drops that aren’t blood leading in the opposite direction. Maddie Harris arrives at the hospital to learn that Nicky is in critical condition. Heartbroken, she tells Mac she used to pick her sons up from school every day before her husband died, forcing her to find work.

Flack tries to guide Sam into creating a sketch on the computer reflecting what the shooter looked like while Adam analyzes the trace from under Nicky’s nails that gets a hit in CODIS to a thug named Johnny Cook. Mac and Stella pick Johnny up and find out that he’s wearing Nicky’s Rolex. Mac interrogates Johnny, but he denies shooting Nicky, and tells Mac all he has him on is possession of stolen property.

Flack has Sam look at a line-up, but even though Sam looks right at Johnny, he says he can’t pick out the shooter. Lindsay identifies the red substance from the alley as common red dye. Hawkes reports that the gun found in the alley wasn't the one used to shoot Nicky.

Adam is puzzled by the presence of synthetic rubber trace around the gunshot hole on the back of Nicky’s shirt, presumed to be the entrance wound. He consults Sid, who says that it could be shoring: the result of something pressing into the exit wound, causing it to look like an entrance wound.

Flack, Danny and Lindsay take Sam back to the alley to see if he can remember anything. Sam tells them that the shooter ran the same way out the alley that he and his brother did, and doesn’t recall him dripping any liquid when he ran off. Flack thinks Sam is scared and confused, but Danny thinks something isn’t adding up, noting the absence of both blood splatter and a bullet.

Adam tries shooting a pig cadaver in the lab to confirm his theory that Nicky was wearing a backpack when he was shot. Mac and Flack question Maddie and Sam about the backpack, and Sam says he forgot that Nicky was carrying one. When Maddie recalls that Nicky had a cell phone in his backpack, Mac asks for the number.

The CSIs trace the cell phone to the apartment of a Troy Castro, who is in the system. Mac, Stella and Flack go to his apartment, but Troy flees, shooting at them as he goes. Flack gives chase, but the pursuit comes to an abrupt halt when Troy is struck by a bus and killed. Stella finds Nicky’s backpack in Troy’s apartment, and discovers a bullet in a history textbook. They find red dye on the book, and are surprised to discover a thick wad of money covered in dye in one of the backpack’s pouches. Hawkes matches the bullet from the textbook to Troy’s gun, and notes that the same gun was used in a bank robbery at a First Federal branch a month ago. Additionally, a First Federal branch was robbed the day before, just 12 blocks from the alley where Nicky was shot.

A bank teller informs Stella and Hawkes that the robber asked for $933, and that he was younger than Troy or Johnny. She recalls him wearing a cap identical to the Derek Jeter baseball cap that was found in the alley. Stella and Hawkes confront Flack, who maintains there’s no way Sam and his brother robbed the bank.

Hawkes thinks Castro, who had been hitting banks in the area, followed the boys and shot them for the money. Mac and Flack question Sam and Maddie, who is surprised to learn the amount taken was the amount of rent money she needed.

Sam admits to the robbery, telling the CSIs he overheard Maddie on the phone with the landlord and convinced his brother they had to get the money somehow. Nicky found a gun and emptied it of bullets so that it couldn’t actually hurt anyone and robbed the bank. Troy followed them and demanded the money and shot Nicky when he wouldn’t turn it over.

Sam, afraid that they would get in trouble, pinned the crime on Johnny, who had taken Nicky’s watch a few days before. The D.A. and the bank president agree not to press charges, and money starts to pour in from sympathetic people. Flack, Mrs. Harris and Sam are by Nicky’s bedside when he wakes up. Aubrey invites Mac for pizza...her favorite place this time.

Cast

Main Cast

• Gary Sinise as Mac Taylor
• Melina Kanakaredes as Stella Bonasera
• Carmine Giovinazzo as Danny Messer
• Anna Belknap as Lindsay Messer
• Robert Joy as Sid Hammerback
• AJ Buckley as Adam Ross
• Hill Harper as Sheldon Hawkes
• Eddie Cahill as Don Flack

Guest Cast

• Mädchen Amick as Aubrey Hunter
• Aaron Refvem as Sam Harris
• Bridger Zadina as Nicky Harris
• Tim Chiou as Vince
• Gina Philips as Maddie Harris
• Andrew J. West as Johnny Cook
• Candice Candelori as Teller
• William Spencer as Troy Castro
• Julie McKinnon as A/V Lab Tech

See Also

• List of CSI: NY episodes
• CSI:New York Season 6
• Category:Images from Unusual Suspects