LCPD patrolman Officer Vince Romano (Adrian Zmed) is shot confronting a gang of car thieves. His partner veteran cop Sgt. T.J.Hooker (William Shatner) prays Romano is able to emerge from surgery alive.
An unarmed 18 year old kid was also shot in the confrontation as Hooker returned fire. Witnesses and news camera footage from the scene indicate the kid was fatally shot by Hooker though it is obvious the car thieves fired the shot.
Hooker is without his hospitalized partner as he begins his investigation into the car theft ring. He also has a cloud hanging over his head placed there by the media during a slow news day. It will be several news cycles before ballistics returns with a report that will clear him. By then perceptions of Hooker's guilt will have solidified and evidence that clears him will seem like a cover-up.
Beyond that the lingering question is whether Romano's head and heart are still in it enough to be effective if he is even able to come back after being shot. Visibly shaken by the shooting, Romano has been given cause to doubt himself in that contrived moment when a hero becomes haunted by his own finiteness the way Hooker occasionally did.
In a half-decent series entry this examines how the media had been less than kind in broadcasting about police excesses and indiscretions during the late 1960s and afterwards. This episode showed how cops had to deal with the pressure and still do their jobs when their every move was not only being scrutinized but when the threat to life and limb was still ever-present.
Written by former LAPD cop Dallas L.Barnes.
An unarmed 18 year old kid was also shot in the confrontation as Hooker returned fire. Witnesses and news camera footage from the scene indicate the kid was fatally shot by Hooker though it is obvious the car thieves fired the shot.
Hooker is without his hospitalized partner as he begins his investigation into the car theft ring. He also has a cloud hanging over his head placed there by the media during a slow news day. It will be several news cycles before ballistics returns with a report that will clear him. By then perceptions of Hooker's guilt will have solidified and evidence that clears him will seem like a cover-up.
Beyond that the lingering question is whether Romano's head and heart are still in it enough to be effective if he is even able to come back after being shot. Visibly shaken by the shooting, Romano has been given cause to doubt himself in that contrived moment when a hero becomes haunted by his own finiteness the way Hooker occasionally did.
In a half-decent series entry this examines how the media had been less than kind in broadcasting about police excesses and indiscretions during the late 1960s and afterwards. This episode showed how cops had to deal with the pressure and still do their jobs when their every move was not only being scrutinized but when the threat to life and limb was still ever-present.
Written by former LAPD cop Dallas L.Barnes.
