CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000–2015): Season 10, Episode 4 - Coup de Grace - full transcript

I was the driver on patrol.

Heard gunfire, called it in, responded.

Saw the suspect with a gun
firing in a southwest direction.

Told my partner to call for backup.

Fearing for someone's life, I exited
the vehicle and engaged the suspect.

I fired three rounds.

Suspect went down.

I approached, kicked the
gun away, handcuffed him.

Okay.

25 years on the job, Jim.

First time I ever had to fire my weapon.



What was your partner's name?

Donna Grayson.

First week on patrol.

Officer Grayson, we're ready
to take you downtown now.

We're gonna need your
statement, too, Danny.

Yeah, I know the drill.

Okay.

We've been getting way too much
business out of this neighborhood, Jim.

Well, if the gangs in L.A. would stay in L.A.,
life in the ghetto would be beautiful again.

What does it look like, David?

We got three GSWs:

one to the left kidney area; one to the
left thigh; and one to the upper torso.

At least one of them was
a through-and-through.

A nine-millimeter
hollow-point.



This looks like our duty issue.

Smith & Wesson Model 60.

.38 Special.

Suspect fired four rounds.

Well, that's consistent with
Officer Finn's statement.

Hey, brother! Let me talk to you!

That's right. I'm talking to you.

Damn cop shot him after he was down.

Plain murder.

Murder!

She's speaking the truth!

It was murder!

Murder!

Would they be crying "murder"
if he was a white guy?

It's not about this guy.

It's never about one guy.

We'll be taking all their
statements. Let's keep going.

David, would you go ahead
and roll him, please?

We have another
nine-mil hollow-point.

Well, there are a lot of ways a
bullet could end up under his body.

I can only think of two: shot from
a distance through-and-through,

bullet got caught in his clothing,
fell out when he went down; or...

the suspect was shot after he was
down, like the young lady said.

Coup de gr?ce.

Sounds like you already
made up your mind.

You already made up yours?

Ray.

Jim?

Yeah?

This man is a cop.

Oh, no.

Sergeant Scott Johnson.

Lives in Seven Hills.

What are you doing down here, my man?

I'll find out.

First I have to notify Ecklie.

Conrad, Jim Brass.

Eyes are gonna be on every move we make.

They already are.

Tired of this! Shot him in the back!

You know as well as I do

if there's one gun, there's two;
if there's two guys, there's three.

It's how I was trained;
it's how I train the rookies.

You don't have to defend your actions.

I'm just here to document
them for the record.

CSI Willows has entered the room.

She is here to collect and
document your service weapon.

Actually, I'd like to
ask a few questions first.

This is a sketch of the... 900 block of
Adams Street, where the shooting took place.

Officer Finn, could you indicate the position
of the suspect and where you were when you fired?

Suspect was... here.

For the record, Officer
Finn has indicated

that the suspect was in the parking lot of
White House Burgers, south of the building.

I parked my vehicle here.

I fired behind the driver's door.

Also in the parking lot,
north of the suspect.

And you never fired
from any other position?

No, I fired three.

From behind my door.

When did the suspect go down?

On the third shot.

At what point did you
approach the suspect?

When I felt the suspect
was no longer a threat.

When he was down.

Somebody saying something different?

Well, preliminary
eyewitness reports suggest...

that the suspect was shot in
the back after he was down.

So far the physical
evidence doesn't disprove it.

Well, it didn't happen.

Ask my partner.

You gonna tell me what's going on here?

Did you recognize him?

No.

Did you I.D. yourself to him?

I don't know. Maybe.

Did you give him a chance
to I.D. himself to you?

Hell, no. Why would I?

Because he was a cop.

Sergeant Scott Johnson.

That's it.

I'm not saying another word
until my union attorney gets here.

If Finn fired three shots from
behind his door in that direction,

cartridge cases would have
ejected right... and rear.

They should be around here somewhere.

I think I got one.

Make that two.

One to go.

He shot out of there
like a bolt of lightning.

So you saw him leave the restaurant?

I'm saying, where's that other guy, the
one I was talking to in the parking lot?

You know who I mean.

Well, you got me.

Did you, uh, see anybody on the street?

Anything unusual?

Not till all that gunfire started,
and that's not all that unusual.

Okay.

What happened when you heard the shots?

I grabbed my baby, and I hit the ground.

Your baby?

My boy, Avery.

Six years old.

Bring him with me to work.

Sitters cost too much.

Could you see who was shooting?

I saw the floor.

And when did you go outside?

When it got quiet.

Can you show me where you were standing?

Right here.

Right outside the door.

What did you see?

I saw the brother murdered. Here.

The cop was standing
over him, and he shot him.

But you just said that you waited until the
shooting stopped before you went outside.

I know what I saw and what I heard.

There was a whole
bunch of guns going off.

Then it got quiet.

Then one last shot, and that cop
was standing over that poor man.

I saw a murder.

Well, if that's what happened, Officer Finn's
gun would have been pointed at the ground.

That cartridge case... ejected.

Nine-millimeter cartridge case.

Consistent with witness statements.

And inconsistent with
the officer's statement.

Sara, glad to see you back.

Ecklie.

How was your week off in Paris?

Dr. Grissom sends his regards.

Were you able to make notification?

Well, Johnson's only
next-of-kin is his father.

Looks like he's out of town.

Any word on what Johnson
was doing down there?

Well, according to Johnson's
captain, he was off duty;

Adams Street isn't in his district; he wasn't
working undercover; and he had no informants.

So no official reason to be there.

Which is why you are here.

Maybe Sergeant Johnson was
just looking for a good burger.

I doubt it.

Take a look at his body fat.

Not the usual yellow-orange color.

It's white.

He was a vegetarian.

So what was he doing in a burger joint?

Do you have the third bullet?

Nine-mil.

Lodged in his left kidney,
not immediately fatal.

Same as the one shot
through his left thigh.

This one's your COD.

That's the area concerned
with its electrical conduction.

Kind of like flipping the main breaker.

Heart would have stopped immediately.

So it must have been the final shot.

Does the trajectory tell you
if he was standing or prone?

That is the question of the night,
and I can't give you an answer.

You know, in ancient times, a coup de
gr?ce was considered an act of mercy¡ª

a quick blow to end the suffering
of a comrade wounded in battle.

Whatever this was, it
was no act of mercy.

How's the House of Meat?

Sergeant Johnson ordered two
burgers, two drinks, and a salad.

Burgers were not for
him. He was a vegetarian.

According to the
witnesses, he entered alone.

So he must have been meeting someone.

Okay. Who?

And why haven't they come forward?

Officer Grayson, could you see who
Sergeant Johnson was shooting at?

I don't think so.

It was all so fast.

I should have seen more.

I didn't.

Can we do this a little later?

A officer lost his life last night.

We owe it to him to get past
ourselves and do what we have to do.

If you want to pound nails
in your head, do it tomorrow.

Now, show me your position.

Um, I was right there,
calling for backup.

And while you were on the radio,
could you see Sergeant Johnson?

No.

Could you see your partner?

Yes.

Grayson, get the hell down.

Call for backup now.

Control, this is 3 David 34.

We have a 444 in progress,
900 block of AdaMs.

Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.

Requesting backup and paramedics.

David 3-4, copy that. Will advise.

All units, vicinity of 900 block of Adams,
be advised we have a 444 in progress.

Officer involved.

So you didn't actually see
Officer Finn fire the third shot?

I heard it.

It was close.

But by the time that I looked up...

Where was Officer Finn
when you looked up?

Over the body.

Do you have the dispatch calls
from Officer Finn's patrol car yet?

Is there a problem? Deputy?

No, ma'am.

But Officer Finn's mic was
stuck in the open position.

Happens all the time. Might
be helpful. Let's hear it.

Grayson, get the hell down!

Call for backup now!

Control, this is 3 David 34.
We have a 444 in progress.

I'm taking him down.

Black son of a bitch.

Jim, we need to talk about the...

Jim!

I put my credibility
on the line for you.

CSI said excessive
force. I said, "No way."

That's right.

Oh, really?

I'm taking him down.

Black son of a bitch.

Look, I don't remember saying that.

I'm advising you not to speak.

Not until we hear the complete recording
and check the witness statements.

What, you think I'm racist?

Again, officer, I'm telling you...

I don't remember. If I said he was
black, I was describing the suspect.

I was so focused on what
the gun was doing, I...

Did you see his face?

No, it was dark out.

Are you telling me you didn't
recognize Scott Johnson?

He was a trainee. He rode with you.

He was your damn
partner for four months.

You spent eight hours a
day in the car together.

You saw more of him than
you did of your wife.

This was over five years ago.

So, you're telling me that you didn't recognize the guy who
put a formal complaint in your file for racial discrimination?

Let me read this to you.

"Frequent and excessive use of racial
epithets, including the 'N' word."

First of all, no, I
didn't recognize Johnson.

And second, yeah, sure, I use
street talk with the trainees.

Come on, you know that
doesn't fly anymore.

But believe me,
whatever they get from me

is nothing compared to what they're going
to get from the real gorillas in the jungle.

That's a poor choice of words.

I am training them for the real world.

And of the dozens and dozens of
people that I have trained¡ª

and that is every color
of the rainbow, pal¡ª

that hard-ass was the only
one who ever complained.

The only one.

He's the racist, not me.

Ready, set, go.

Four seconds.

Could have run it in two.

Except we're timing a 53-year-old guy
who's packing about 30 pounds of gear.

So, the distance from Finn's car
to Johnson's body was 40 feet?

And according to the dispatch recording,

there was 5.4 seconds that elapsed
between the second and third shots.

Greg just proved that that's time enough for Finn
to have delivered the final shot over the body.

Brass found out Finn put in for
a promotion about a year ago.

It was denied.

A couple of weeks later, Finn saw Johnson at another
officer's retirement party, took a swing at him.

Finn probably thought he deserved a desk job and a
bigger pension and he blamed Johnson for not getting it.

Would Finn have delivered that coup de
gr?ce, if that guy hadn't been Johnson?

But it was, and when Finn recognized
him, his resentment probably took over.

Racially motivated, you think?

Well, obviously, race is a
hot-button issue for the guy.

When I heard the dispatch
recording, I hated what I heard.

I thought, "The guy's a racist."

But it may not be that simple.

I mean, it was a stress situation.

And people say things they would
never, ever say in a normal setting.

Don't we?

You know, there was a study done back
in Michigan about a year or so ago.

It, uh, examined an officer's response to situations
involving deadly force and whether race is a factor.

It found that an officer has less than a third
of a second to decide whether to use his gun.

That's not much time.

It's enough for an instinctive response.

Yes, but the study
showed, overwhelmingly,

that the most important factor in an officer's
response is the suspect's actions, not race.

I'm not talking about racial profiling.

That's a whole other box of crayons.

I'm talking about that third of a
second when a threat jumps out at you.

Look...

when I had a gun pulled on me, I didn't check
for skin color before I pulled the trigger.

Finn's motives are not what we're after.

Just the evidence that's going
to tell us about his actions.

We got a 420 at an abandoned
school on Madison, north of Fifth.

I'll take it.

Okay.

And life goes on.

If I need to call you,
I'm going to. That's cool?

Thanks.

Moreno.

Sara.

Skater found the body.

It looks like a gang execution.

The victim's just a kid.

Body's in full rigor.

TOD was about 16 hours ago.

10:00 last night.

It was a busy hour in the neighborhood.

This was why my parents
moved from L.A. to Vegas.

So I wouldn't end up like that.

GSW to the neck.

It's a
through-and-through.

Got a bullet here.

Nine-mil.

Everybody loves their nines, huh?

Good guys, bad guys.

My mom.

I don't see any cartridge casings.

Homeboys are catching finally
on and policing their brass.

He's missing a finger.

When you get him on the
table, look in his rectum.

You'll find his finger there.

So that's what gangs are
doing to snitches these days?

How do you know he's a snitch?

He got shot through the throat.

Trajectory was upwards, front to back.

David, can I see the entry?

Yeah.

No, please.

No! No! Please!

I'll stop! I'll stop!

Please, no!

No! No!

Supplying or buying?

Got sneaker prints in blood.

Ball to toe.

They were running.

The tread detail is still sharp.

Sneakers were fairly new.

Probably just lifted them at the mall.

Blood drops traveling
in the same direction.

Your suspect was wounded.

You know, I can't help but wonder how Officer Finn just
happened to roll up on the very guy he had a beef with.

Yeah, who just happened to be in the middle of the
hood, miles from home and shooting at something.

Presenting Finn with the perfect
opportunity to exact revenge.

What do you think?

You think it could have been a setup?

I don't know. I mean, he called in "shots fired"
before he could even see that it was Johnson.

But if he planned it, he knew Johnson was ther And
his unwitting partner would give him credibility.

All right, so, what puts Johnson
on Adams Street in the first place?

Well, his last call was to
someone named "Anthony" at 9:59 pm.

Dispatch logged "shots
fired" at 10:07 p.m.

Looks like Johnson and this guy called each
other several times over the last couple days.

All right, so maybe
that's who he was meeting.

Could run the number on an AG warrant.

Or we could call him.

Hello?

Sara?

This is Nick. Whose phone is this?

My John Doe's
- the dead kid.

His name's Anthony.

Victim's name was Anthony Lopez.

He lived with his mom in
an apartment on Garfield.

She I.D.'d the body. She said
he wasn't involved with gangs.

Don't they all?

What did she say about
the drugs he was carrying?

She said he never used,
and his tox came back clean.

Did the mother know Sergeant Johnson?

No. And Johnson wasn't working gangs.

And Lopez did not have a record.

Sorry, Mom, this has
gangs written all over it.

PD has a trial on
some new gang software.

Call Detective Moreno and give it a try.

Yeah, okay.

All right, keep them out.

All right, folks, you heard
the man. Stay behind the tape.

Okay, Danny, this is the standard
after-shooting walk-through.

I'm CSI Stokes. I'm going to be
asking you a few questions, okay?

Why not? Everybody else is.

When you arrived on the scene,
according to your statement,

Officer Johnson had his
gun drawn and was shooting.

Is that correct?

Yeah, that's right.

Could you see what he was shooting at?

I could not see his target.
I could not see his face.

But I saw the gun, and I saw him firing.

And that was, uh, that was
in this direction, right?

No. Turn to your right.

More.

That's it.

So he was facing away from you?

Why'd you make the decision to shoot?

Screw you.

What?

- No, I am so sick of everybody and their kid brother
second-guessing me. - Hey, I'm not second-guessing you!

- You know what? If you knew anything, you'd know that a guy with a gun in this neighborhood...
- Watch it.

What?! It's a black neighborhood.

Look at their faces. Tell me I'm wrong.

Don't go there.

It's you people I was trying to save!

All right, shut up!

Mitch, get him out of here.

I put my life on the line
every day for you people!

What have you ever done for me, huh?

You got a death wish, buddy?

And you know what?! Every bad thing that
happened to you people, it's not my fault.

Got it?!

It's not my fault!

Let's go.

Let go of me!

I can't defend this guy.

All right, all right, all right.

He's kind of prickly, isn't he?

Well, let's cut him some slack.

He's under a lot of pressure. You know.

Well, at least now we know
where Johnson was shooting.

And I'm thinking it was Anthony
Lopez that Johnson was meeting here.

And Johnson was shooting
at whoever killed Anthony.

I got what looks like
a bullet hole here, Jim.

Missing hubcaps, flat tire.

You don't park in this neighborhood
unless your car's not worth stealing.

Look at that.

.38 expanded hollow-point, with what
looks like traces of blood and tissue.

We'll find out.

Well, Johnson was shooting a.38.

Hey, Nick.

Yeah?

I got a trail.

Yep.

It's blood.

Whatever Johnson was
shooting at, he hit.

All right, this program links evidence from gang-related
crimes in a fraction of the time it used to take us to do it.

We input all the evidence we've got and compare
it against the database, starting with ballistics.

Each dot represents a crime involving
firearms. And that, that's just the last year.

I leave town for a while
and all hell breaks loose.

Pretty cool.

Showing you guys something new.

Let's hope it works.

Oh, it works.

You see? Four gangs favor
jacketed hollow-point nine-mils.

All right, let's input
the sneaker print.

"Cause and manner of death:
exsanguination due to GSWs."

All right, we're down
to two possible gangs.

Let's input the location where we found the victim
- Madison and Fifth.

D
- Street Killers.

They run Garfield
Street, where Lopez lived.

Adams is outside of their territory.

So, Anthony Lopez and Sergeant Johnson probably
thought they were meeting somewhere safe.

Do you have a log of all the known D
- Street Killers in the database?

Except the ones that
are dead or incarcerated.

Yeah.

I'll round them up.

I analyzed the bullet that you found
here, under Sergeant Johnson's body.

It had manufacturer's
petroleum sealant on the base.

That's not uncommon. It keeps moisture
from getting into the cartridge.

Right, but I did not find any sealant
on any of Finn's other bullets.

Which also is not uncommon.

Manufacturers often mix
different batches of ammo.

Did you find sealant on
any of the cartridge cases?

Bear with me, wise one.

There was no sealant on the cartridge
case Nick found under the fence.

However, I did find sealant
on one cartridge case:

the cartridge case that you found
in the windshield of the patrol car.

So the bullet we thought was the coup de gr?ce was
fired from the cartridge case on the patrol car?

40 feet from Johnson.

That's not a coup de gr?ce.

And in addition to the sealant, there were denim
fibers in the nose of the bullet found under Johnson.

He was wearing jeans.

He landed on top of the bullet
that went through his leg.

The first bullet I found was the
one that went through his back.

We can't be sure.

Without corresponding trace, we can't
match bullets to cartridge cases.

There was trace on the
cartridge case near the fence.

And this is where it gets really sticky.

"Grape juice, corn syrup, fruit
pectin, citric acid, sodium citrate."

It had grape jelly on it?

Yes.

And there was a fingerprint.

Mandy ran it
- no hits.

If there was jelly on the cartridge before it was
fired, it would have burned off in the chamber.

So somebody had to have
touched it after it was fired.

Which means somebody moved the evidence.

The scene was secure within minutes.

The only people that were there were Officers Finn
and Grayson and the witnesses at the burger joint.

Which doesn't serve breakfast
- only burgers, fries, and ice cream.

No jelly in the kitchen or on the menu.

But check this out.

There's a jelly packet.

Right by the toy truck.

I know who touched the cartridge case.

I like French fries with jelly.

Puts grape jelly on everything
- macaroni, eggs, carrots.

I take those jelly packs from breakfast
spots, so I always have some handy.

Else-wise, baby won't eat at all.

Avery, last night, when everybody
ran outside, did you touch anything?

He didn't touch anything.

It was all I could do to keep
him from having to see that...

that man that was sick
in the parking lot.

I'd like your consent
to run his fingerprints.

Could help us clear up a critical
part of our investigation.

Avery, can you do this with your finger?

Put it right there.

All right, that's good.

He did find something.

What you doing? Put that down.

He didn't know what he was doing.

He's not in any trouble, ma'am.

But he did help us prove that Officer Finn didn't
hurt Sergeant Johnson after he was already down.

Witnesses often merge what they
actually saw with prior assumptions.

Well, good news is, CSIs proved
you didn't commit a coup de gr?ce.

The bad news?

Excuse me.

You're still on administrative leave.

Because of your recent outburst,

they aren't gonna issue you a replacement weapon
until you get cleared by a department shrink.

When you shot a cop, is
that what you did, Jim?

Did you cry on some couch to a shrink?

Come on, Danny. Come on.

I know the deal. I know the depression.

But you know, you should
look at the bright side.

You're on paid leave, so
why don't you go somewhere?

Take a vacation. Go to
a beach. Go play golf.

Go make love to your
wife in the afternoon.

That's what I'll do.

That's what I'll do.

And then Johnson won't be dead anymore.

Hey, hey, come on, come on.

Hey, listen. Listen to me.

I'll give it to you straight.

The lawsuits and the investigation are
gonna take, like, forever, all right?

So why don't you do yourself a favor?

You got many years in this job.

Why don't you think about retirement?

This could be the time to get out.

And get out clean.

Would you be telling me to
quit if Johnson had been white?

So, it wasn't that long ago that my wife
died and Scott moved back home with me.

Said he didn't want me...

he didn't want me to be alone.

That white cop...

This was revenge.

The elevators are this way, Mr. Johnson.

He was in that neighborhood last
night trying to save a kid's life.

Spanish kid.

Got caught shoplifting
in a jewelry store.

Part of some kind of gang initiation.

He only did it because he
didn't think he had a choice.

My Scotty got the owner
not to press charges.

Told him he would be
a mentor to the boy.

Gave him his phone number and
he checked with him every day.

He was a good man.

We have all of Scott's
personal effects downstairs.

Wait, Mr. Johnson.

I'll meet you in the lobby.

Open your mouth, please.

Open your mouth.

Delinquente...

delinquente...

Si tu no hagas lo que quiere,
tu no sales de aqui, okay?

Can I see the bottom
of your shoes, please?

H?galo.

Let go of my leg!

What's wrong with your leg?

None of your business.

Let the rest of them go.

Actually, run 'em for warrants.

Drop your pants.

If there's a bullet in his
ass, his ass is evidence.

It's killing me, man. Get it out.

First you tell us what Anthony
Lopez did to piss you off.

Anthony who?

Answer the question.

Punk thought by muling some crank
he'd make me think he wasn't snitching.

I knew better.

The snitch was gonna talk to that cop.

No way I was letting that happen.

Next thing I know, cop's shooting at me.

Cop got his.

I got out of there. That's it, I swear.

Just don't hit me no more.

They say a suicide
attempt is a cry for help,

but from the size of this hole, I'd
say we have an admission of guilt.

Have you ever been with someone
at the moment they died, David?

Actually... no.

Well, my eyes were the last
ones that he looked into.

I just wonder...

David, have you seen these bruises?

Yeah, they look just like
my grandmother's knees.

She is always bumping into things.

Nick, would you go stand where
Sergeant Johnson was shooting, please?

Yes, sir.

We've already proved
there was no coup de gr?ce.

What is this gonna show us?

We still haven't determined whether or not Officer
Finn recognized Sergeant Johnson when he shot him.

Nick, go ahead and assume
a shooting stance, please,

Take this, put it up to
your eyes and look at Nick.

I noticed multiple bruises in various stages of healing
on Officer Finn's legs right about coffee table height.

I also noticed there were a lot of dings
on his car when I went to the garage.

Now that you mention it, the left front
fender of his patrol car had a dent.

So, post-mortem on his eyes revealed hyperplastic
formations in the mid-peripheral retina.

His vision was severely
impaired by retinitis pigmentosa.

It's like seeing the
world through a straw.

And it's progressive.

Vision in both eyes slowly
irises down over time.

No way he should have been working
patrol then. That's for sure.

Probably too proud to go out on a
disability, even though it's a better pension.

I have to say he was a pretty
good shot for a blind guy.

Ironically, because his vision was so constrained,
he was able to focus on the immediate threat.

And there's one more thing.

Officer Finn's patrol car was parked at an angle
where his headlights wouldn't have picked up Johnson,

which means that that
light put him in silhouette.

It's like the perfect storm: his
condition, at night with this lighting.

Finn couldn't have known it was Johnson.

Finn took action in the line of duty, and
Johnson was trying to help a kid at risk.

So where's the bad guy in this?

You tell me.