Stopping at an ATM before a night out with her sons, Van Buren is mugged by two young black boys barely in Middle School, one of whom has a gun. She responds with force, hitting and killing the unarmed boy. The armed perpetrator escapes and things go from bad to worse for Van Buren. The dead boy, James Gordon, was legally retarded and the only witness to back up her story is her son Richard. Briscoe and Logan do their own off the books investigation. Based on Van Buren's recollection, they believe she may have hit the gunman in a non fatal spot, the bullet passing through him and killing Gordon. A search of E.R.s reveals one such kid being admitted with a gunshot wound to arm, but fleeing after being treated. Searching an area populated by delinquents, they find a boy with an arm in the sling, Zack Rowland, and take him in. He admits to trying to rob Van Buren, but only through intimidation: he was unarmed and she shot at him and James unnecessarily.
Due to the publicity of the case, McCoy feels he has no choice but to present the case to grand jury. The prosecutor is aggressive with Van Buren, even asking if she may have been motivated by race, despite being black herself, because of the disproportionate amount of black offenders her station deals with. Van Buren's calm testimony and consistent story, along with her son backing up her version while Zack is not credible, results in the grand jury refusing to bring an indictment. She and Kincaid feel McCoy was too hard on a long time police detective with a spotless record, but he claims he needed to make sure there was no appearance of bias by the city.
Although cleared, Van Buren is determined to bring Zack to justice and allows Brisco and Logan to conduct an official investigation. They interview Gordon's girlfriend, another mentally impaired child named Gwendolyn. She points them to where Zack hides the gun. Needing to tie it tighter to Zack, they trace to it to a bodega where it was stolen from the owner by Zack's older brother, Tony "G-Dawg". Facing a parole violation, he admits selling it to his younger sibling.
McCoy charges Zack with both robbery and murder, on the theory he tricked a boy with impaired mental capacity as an accomplice to a crime, resulting in his death. Rowland's lawyer, Jerome Osborn uses the media to claim that the system is pursuing murder charges due to his client's race. McCoy skirts the rules of evidence by hiding the fact that James wanted money to buy Gwen a bracelet with her full name on it. Osborn finds out and tries to have McCoy sanctioned along with a dismissal of the case; the judge rules that McCoy bent the rules but didn't break them on the basis James' motive didn't have to do anything with Zack's. She does allow Osborn to present the theory in court.
With the case hinging on the bracelet, Van Buren visits James' mother. Although initially angry and refusing to help, Van Buren convinces the grieving mother to listen to what the lieutenant has to say. With tears in her eyes, Van Buren explains that she will never live down taking the life of such a young child. In her job, she has seen too many young black men dead in the streets and has to live with adding another. No matter how angry Mrs. Gordon is with Van Buren, she cannot let Zack get away with luring her son into the situation that led to his death. Relenting, she brings Van Buren to her son's room, adorned with sports memorabilia. Explaining her son had some valuable baseball cards, she shows the bracelet he bought for Gwen, paid for by selling some of the cards.
At a bar, Van Buren catches up with McCoy, who confirms Rowland took a plea. She asks McCoy about his zealous prosecution of her in front of the grand jury. McCoy explains that he was the son of a cop and if that officer was mugged in the same circumstance Van Buren was, there would be two dead kids on the street.
"And you would have dragged him in front of the grand jury?"
"Damn right. And I would have gotten an indictment too."
—Anita Van Buren and Jack McCoy
The two share a laugh, having come to an understanding and buried the hatchet.
This episode contains examples of:
- A Day in the Limelight: Lt. Anita Van Buren is the focus of the episode, something unique in the original series. The personal lives of the police and prosecution are left in the background for the most part and they are rarely personally involved in the case. Van Buren's predecessor, Donald Cragen was the focus of his own episode "The Blue Wall" in season one.
- Death of a Child: The episode starts with a robbery that results in the death of a retarded child with a chronological age of 14.
- Just Doing My Job: McCoy's justification for bringing the shooting to the Grand Jury and his harsh treatment of Van Buren on the stand. To his credit, he is just as zealous in prosecuting Zack and makes up with Anita at the episode's end.
- Malcolm Xerox: Jerome Osborn, Zack's lawyer. His main strategy is to use race, both in the media and the courtroom. He uses the threat of race riots as a negotiating tactic.
- Outliving One's Offspring: James Gordon's dead body is identified by his mother.
- Smoking Gun: Or in this case, bracelet. Once James' mother produces the bracelet her son purchased for his girlfriend before the robbery, Zack has no choice but to accept a plea deal as his defense has fallen apart.
- Smug Snake: Zack Rowland and his lawyer Jerome Osborn. The former is a street smart thug who manipulated a retarded boy into a situation that got him killed and refuses to take responsibility until the evidence nails him. The latter uses race as a weapon and smiles as he proclaims he can start race riots with just his words if he doesn't get his way.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Partially invoked. It is revealed Zack takes a plea deal at the end of the episode, but the exact terms aren't revealed. Given the nature of his actions and what he put so many people through, it's likely he received a sentence that would span from Juvenile Detention to an adult facility.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Van Buren and Kincaid are not happy with McCoy's decision to go the grand jury and even less so with his treatment of Van Buren on the stand. McCoy claims it's not personal, but to make sure there is no accusation of bias. He and Van Buren are back on good terms at the end of the episode.
- Ironically, Kindcaid becomes angry when McCoy later tries to help Van Buren. She believes Jack is ignoring rules of evidence by not disclosing the motive for the robbery could have been James' idea in order to get money to buy a bracelet for his girlfriend. When Osborn finds out, he tries to have Jack sanctioned by the trial judge and the case dismissed. While she admits McCoy toed the line, she doesn't impose sanctions or dismiss the charges and allows Osborn to present the theory to the jury. He doesn't help his case by telling Claire not only does he not have to turn it over, he doesn't want to.
