Directed by Daniel Sackheim
Written by Robert Palm
In a drive-by shooting at an apartment building, 12-year-old Gregory Winters is paralyzed and his baby brother Andrew is killed. The shooter, Franklin "T-Ball" Howard, is a young teenager who works for a drug gang. Michael Ingrams, the gang's leader, used T-Ball as a hitman but T-Ball cannot read and so he went to the wrong address. The intended target was Ned Kay, a real estate broker.
Kay's business is in fact a cover for laundering drug money. He used $300,000 of Ingrams' money for a personal investment but lost it, so Ingrams took out a hit on him. Kay refuses to testify against Ingrams even at the risk of another, successful hit. Since T-Ball will not be enough to convince the jury, Stone convinces the IRS to prosecute Kay for tax fraud, and then offers him a deal in exchange for immunity to the fraud charges.
In court, the defence highlights the fact that Kay is a heavy cocaine user who has previously served jail time for possession. But Stone demonstrates to the jury that Ingrams groomed T-Ball into killing and is just as guilty of Andrew's death. The jury convicts but Andrew's mother tearfully tells a reporter that T-Ball will be back on the streets within a few years, at a time when Andrew should have been celebrating his eighth birthday.
This episode contains examples of:
- Bittersweet Ending: Stone is happy with the results of the episode because he won against Ingrams. A reporter then interviews Mrs. Winters to get her reaction. She points out that because of T-Ball's deal, he'll be out in seven years, when her dead baby would have been eight, and she's close to tears because of it.
- Death of a Child: The episode opens with the death of Andrew Winters, who was less than a year old.
- Hit Man: T-Ball is one for Ingrams' gang.
- Mood Whiplash: At the beginning of the episode, Greevey and Logan are joking around as they often do... until they see the scene and realize the victim was a baby, at which point their expressions immediately change to sadness and horror.
- Murder by Mistake: Andrew died because T-Ball went to the wrong address, intending to kill Ned Kay.
- Never Learned to Read: T-Ball is unable to read, which kick-starts the plot when he shoots at the wrong house.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Andrew was killed at the beginning of the episode; his mother is still alive at the end
- Smug Snake: Ingrams is very satisfied that he won't be convicted and Kay will never testify against him.
- Too Dumb to Live:
- Kay was nearly murdered because he thought it was a good idea to gamble with a violent drug baron's money.
- Even without being able to read the address, T-Ball failed to realize that wealthy, white Kay probably wouldn't live in a poor Black neighborhood like the Winters'; and could easily have been killed for bungling the hit. Stone wryly points this out to him.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: T-Ball, who is only 14 years old, committed a drive-by shooting that killed a baby. Dizz is even younger but was also involved in guns, drugs, and gang activity.
- What the Hell, Hero?: At one point Mrs. Winters gets fed up with the detectives' insensitive questions and asks them why they're trying to make it seem like her eldest son brought everything on them.
- Would Hurt a Child: Subverted. The detectives are initially looking for someone monstrous enough to kill a baby in cold blood, but there isn't one. Ingrams expected T-Ball to kill Kay, and T-Ball had no idea he was at the wrong address or that there was a baby in the house.
