T.J. Hooker (1982) s04e01 Episode Script

(exciting synth music) - Look at those kids.
The sun is hardly up and they're already headed off to catch some waves.
Don't you wish you were with them? - Oh, sure.
- Wake up and get with it, partner.
Life is great! - Gee, I told maintenance to check that slow leak! - We'll stop at a gas station.
Just coffee? - I don't know, I skipped breakfast.
- You feel like a croissant this morning? - (chuckling) Watch your language.
Just coffee's fine.
- Hi Frank, how are you? (tense music) (gun firing) - Didn't say, didn't say a word, just cut her down.
He went out the back.
- Oh no.
Call an ambulance and police.
Move! (guns firing) (sirens wailing) - Get back from there! My God, it's Stacy.
- What happened here? - Robbery.
He had the .
45 on me, then she just walked in, he cut her down.
I called for the ambulance.
(gun firing) - Four Adam 30, alert the hospital, they're coming out.
Jim! - Stacy? - Paramedics are in there now.
What about the guy? - I couldn't catch him.
He was down the street when we got here.
I got the plates, we just put it on the horn but I never saw the driver.
- Did you get to her father? - He'll meet you at the hospital.
- The guy who shot her.
- Gone.
- Whoever he is, I want him.
- As we rolled in here, she said, life is great.
- How is she? - There's a team of doctors working on her.
One of them's gonna come out and talk to us.
- I got a description of the suspect over the radio.
- Two suspects now.
One who shot her and whoever was driving the sedan.
How is she, Doctor? - Critical.
Two problems we have to deal with.
Only one bullet hit her, in the chest.
It's lucky she was wearing a bulletproof vest, or she'd be dead.
But the bullet is now lodged in the wall of her heart.
- What's the second problem? - The bullet's impact slammed her back against something.
That resulted in brain concussion, shock, and now coma.
No question that we have to remove that bullet from the pericardium, the lining of the heart, but we are afraid to do so until we can stabilize her condition.
- Doctor, I had a chance to think this through while I was driving over here, and, look, if there are any decisions that I have to make, I'd appreciate knowing as soon as possible.
Yeah, it's funny.
It's funny how the mind works.
I see her like, you know, when she was about 11, she broke her arm at the playground at school.
You know, there was nobody around, so, I had to pick her up, take her in, have the cast put on.
I remember her, you know, sitting next to me in the car afterwards and thinking, such a hell of a big cast for such a small kid.
- I want a 24-hour guard around Stacy's room, nobody in, nobody out unless they've been cleared.
What about DMV on the the gray sedan's license plate? - Stolen about six weeks ago out of the east side.
- Well that blows our prime lead so far.
Okay, Corrigan.
Check robbery's MO bulletins for anything that fits with what we've got.
Need a name for the scum who pulled the trigger.
He's got a record, he's got a pad, he's got a name.
- Done.
Then I'm doing SID to help make up an artist sketch of the big guy.
They're also bringing in the man who owns the sandwich shop.
- Lab come up with anything we can use? - Maybe, one of the slugs went into a wall by the refrigerator.
Lab man who dug it out said that it was armor-piercing.
- Cop killers.
That explains why the bullet went through Stacy's vest.
- Well sure.
He capped off a few at me.
One of them went right through two sides of a dumpster.
- He put in an order for that ammo.
He wanted to kill a cop.
- Yeah, and I made it easier for him.
- What are you talking about? - I should have gone into that shop with her.
- Hey, Jim.
You stop there every morning.
- Yeah, we stop there every morning and only one of us went in, sure.
But I forgot for just five minutes that the uniform is a target, no matter where you go.
I forgot my partner is a target.
And I let her walk through that door alone.
- Those super-slugs might work for us.
A lot of gun stores don't carry them.
And most of them that do are very careful about who they sell them to.
I popped an armed robber out here a couple of years ago, he was carrying a dozen clips of armor-piercing bullets.
He never told me where he got 'em.
- He live out this way? - No, he lives in San Quentin now.
But his girlfriend works out here, and she scores on the street every morning.
And the license plate to that gray sedan was grabbed out in this neighborhood.
There she is.
Hey you, wait a minute! Now wait up Lecha, we got you.
Come here, come here.
- Damn it, let go! - Easy, easy, easy.
Lady lost her purse, get it.
- (laughing) Hooker.
I thought you were a friend of mine.
- Well I am a friend, you're gonna need one.
How much grass you got in here? - How much grass can I afford, huh? Two joints.
- Two joints.
Two joints.
I wanna talk to you about cop-killing bullets, Lecha.
Where can I find some? - I'm no snitch! - Tell your probation officer that if I book you for possession.
Now on the other hand, it must get awfully lonely for Roberto.
Maybe instead I could have him transferred down to Chino.
Be nice and close for you.
- You could do all that? - Sure.
Super-slugs.
- Lucky Loans.
But the owner don't sell super-slugs to people he don't know.
- Thanks, Lecha.
- Hey.
What about my purse? - You'll need it for car fare home.
(clucking) - It's a good sketch.
Frank the shop owner was very helpful.
- Right.
We ran the suspect's description and MO by CII.
They need more information if they're gonna help us.
- What about this place? - Sells armor-piercing ammo to people like big guy here.
- Well, if you've got good information like that, we can stake the place, get enough for a search warrant.
- I don't wanna stake the place, I don't wanna take time for a search warrant.
Stacy was shot two hours ago.
We don't know how many more cops this guy is willing to kill.
- Can I help you people? - You certainly can, buster.
I haven't got time to shuck and jive, so I'll jump straight to it.
Super-slugs, armor-piercing ammo.
- Me? Those mean mamas.
If you're looking to buy, I consider them a public menace.
I don't handle them.
- Uh Hey look, I'll be right back.
- Know that guy? He sure as hell knows you.
- Go, Jovina, go! - It's the same car.
- [Gun Dealer.]
Never laid eyes on him.
- Just like you never laid eyes on the black kid who ran out of here.
- I've said that.
No, I never laid eyes on neither of them before! - Sedan the same one used in earlier incident in which Officer Stacy Sheridan was shot.
- You guys interested in buying something? I'll give you my regular police discount, you get out of my store, you're bad for business.
Hey, man.
- Get your hands off me.
- Hooker, you can't do this! - No, you got no right! - Talk to me about rights! I got a police officer with a slug jammed up against her heart! I don't wanna hear about your rights! - Think about it, Hooker, this may blow our chances.
And it isn't really gonna help Stacy! - Super-slugs.
The tips chemically treated.
Just like the ones you sold that black kid.
Just like the ones that big guy pumped into one of us this morning.
- No, I told you.
- Tell me the truth! When, when did you sell the ammo? - Last night, but not to both of them.
- How much did you sell? - Two boxes, but just to the black kid, just to Toothpick! - Toothpick.
- Only name I ever heard, I swear.
- You sold the .
45 to the big guy? - No! Just the black kid.
I sold 'em both .
45s.
- Two .
45s, no waiting period, no ID check? No record clearance? You're going to jail, gun dealer.
- All right, you climbed all over him and it worked, but what if-- - No buts, it worked, that's all that counts.
- Look, so far he's maybe got police brutality.
You wanna give him false arrest on top? - Tattoo this on your skull, both of you.
I'll walk over 10 dirtbags like him if that's what it takes to catch the punk that shot Stacy.
- Okay, we're not faulting you on that, but you book him and you're putting everything on the line.
The case, your badge.
We eyeballed the second suspect, we got a street name, Toothpick.
We'll go from there, let him walk.
- That gun dealer spends the night in a nice cold cell and I hope the plumbing doesn't work.
And maybe it'll influence him the next time he gets the urge to sell a gun to a cop-killer.
Take him in! - Where you going? - To the hospital.
(machine beeping) - Nurse.
What's going on here? I walked in on Officer Sheridan and she's alone.
- I just stepped out for a moment.
- To do what? Call your boyfriend? Where's her father? - Dr.
Coe is having the other team members brief him on the situation.
- Is there a problem here? - I just stepped out to get her medication and this gentleman seems to be.
- Understood, go back to your patient.
- Thank you.
- I don't care what she's getting.
I don't want Officer Sheridan left unattended.
- They are monitoring devices which relay instantly to this station.
The slightest change in her condition But I understand your concern, Sergeant Hooker.
And I share it.
- Is her condition deteriorating? - There's been some leakage of blood from the pericardium, or lining, into the heart proper.
If it continues, it impairs the heart function.
- And you can't cut the bullet out because of the concussion, her coma.
- It's quite possible she wouldn't survive the operation.
- Are you saying she'll die if you do and die if you don't.
- I'm sorry, but I guess that's what I'm saying, Sergeant.
(carnival music) - Hey, Roller, how's it going? - Fine.
Hey I don't know that I know you, man.
- Oh, it doesn't matter.
Now I'm looking for Toothpick.
- Sorry.
Hey, you the man, right? Where am I supposed to know this Toothpick from? - Oh, you and he worked with the street prostitute at the bus station.
You'd meet late buses, pros would pick up a trick, take him to the Hotel Clayton, then you and Toothpick used to roll 'em.
- Hey that's a nice story, but I'm sorry man, I don't know know Toothpick.
- Oh sure you do.
Sure! I wanna know his real name, where he's at.
- Hey, I suspect you think I'm somebody else.
- You're the punk, all right.
We got four outstanding warrants on you for outstanding performance.
Assault, rape.
It's not that I'm not glad to see you, but what you are doing here? - You're not the only one checking the Monica file tonight.
I also found out our friend Roller here had an associate with just the street name, Toothpick.
- Hey, man! - All right, let's try again.
Toothpick, what's his real name? - I never knew it! - You ever try skating on water? You can drown before you can get the skates off.
- Hook! - Lay off me! - Hey man, I never knew it, I swear! I never knew it! He didn't want to be called nothing but Toothpick.
- How'd you meet this Toothpick? - I never met him.
I just saw him hanging around the school yard, you know, shooting baskets.
- What school would that be, Roller? - Carver High! We was just talking! - Yeah, and you just struck up a friendship, is that it? Get in there! Good bust.
- Sure it's a good bust.
Throw him off the pier and what happens.
- I wasn't gonna take it that far.
- Yeah, but he didn't know that.
- I know.
That sleaze gunrunner.
Is he enjoying his night in the can? - You're a dreamer.
reached the city attorney's office, we got orders to kick him loose.
Before the end of the watch we got a call, from Internal Affairs.
- Let me guess.
They'll be waiting for me in the morning.
(machine beeping) - The bartender where Lecha Martinez works says you chased her down and copped her marijuana.
What'd you do with it? - I flushed it down a park toilet.
- That was contraband.
And it was evidence in what could have been a good arrest.
- Lecha had some seeds and some sticks and a couple of joints.
No deputy DA in the city is gonna go to court over a couple of joints.
And it was a waste of time and taxpayer money to cite her and arrest her, and you know it.
- Maybe it was a waste of time because you were in a hurry to get to Lucky Loans.
My information is that when you got there, you beat the hell out of the gun dealer.
- That isn't true.
- Then to cover yourself you had Officer Romano and Corrigan take Robinson in on a misdemeanor firearms charge.
Do you really expect that to stand up in court? - Gentlemen, we seem to be on a different wavelength here.
Robinson violated the law and he was arrested and booked.
- You did hit him.
- He swung at me, I stopped him! He also sold the bullets that took down a police officer! - It doesn't bother you that Robinson's attorney is filing a police brutality and false arrest suit against you and the city, and that the deputy city attorney says that he can't prosecute because of your illegal search and seizure.
- No, that doesn't bother me.
And if the deputy CA wants to throw this case out and let that sucker walk, I'll open the door and kick him all the way down to the bricks.
Because I already got what I want from him.
Information that will help me take down the guy who shot Officer Sheridan.
And that's what's important to me.
Listen, give me a couple days to wrap this thing up.
Then, I'll come back and I'll face Robinson's lawyer, whatever.
- Maybe you should quit while you're behind, Hooker.
- What's that mean? - It means it's official from downtown, you're out of the investigation into the assault on Stacy Sheridan.
From now on it's out of your hands.
You're not to go near it! - You coming along, then? - We'll be getting around to you very soon, Corrigan.
We just got a report on the arrest you and Hooker put together last night.
- Oh, worry about that arrest later.
Look, there's some things you may not understand about this case, about Hooker.
- He wasn't shy about explaining himself.
- Oh sure he's angry about what happened to Stacy Sheridan, we all are.
But Hooker was more than just her training officer.
He was there when she was born.
He's been like a godfather to Stacy ever since.
You're looking at 20 years now.
- That's exactly what we're looking at, Given his record, maybe it's inevitable.
- What, given his record? Hey listen, the day you people can put together a service record like Hooker's.
- Thanks, Corrigan.
I appreciate your input.
- I don't think I did you a whole lot of good with those people.
- I appreciate the effort, but they came with their minds made up.
But the order for me to stay out of it doesn't include you two, does it? - Of course not, why? - Well it makes sense for the captain to assign me to a Z-car and team the two of you together, assuming you're compatible.
- Well.
His legs aren't quite as good as Stacy's, but, temporarily, until Stacy's back in harness.
- Romano? - Yeah.
- Hooker.
You're under direct orders.
If you don't comply they're gonna break you.
- I know what you're trying to say, Jim.
Do me a favor.
Don't say it.
- Romano.
You know about Hooker, don't you? - Yeah, I figured it out.
He's gotta keep going until he gets the big guy.
It could cost him his badge.
He doesn't want it to cost me mine, too.
- In other late news, policewoman Stacy Sheridan, wounded in a beach side convenience store holdup, remains in guarded condition at Community Hospital.
There is still no clue as to the identity of the bandits who gunned her down in brutal fashion yesterday morning.
- Great, he's back! - Beautiful.
I was hoping he would forget where I live.
- Jovina, look, we need - It used to be we just needed each other.
(knocking) - Okay.
Well did you see something you like? - Yeah.
Jewelry store at the marina.
Come on! How about Chinese food? - Good idea.
The policewoman's still alive.
- Don't worry about it.
She'll be dead in a while.
Trust me.
(laughing) (whistling) - Come on, let's pick it up, come on! Come on, it's the start of the practice, let's go! - Cassius! - Hooker, hey! (laughing) Ah, it's been a long time, Sergeant.
- You're a coach here now? - And a member of the faculty.
- Congratulations.
- You know from that day you busted me, I've been nothing but a goal-oriented, upward-mobile, dedicated dude.
- Way to go, buddy.
I'm looking for a kid who might have played here once, named Toothpick.
- Hooker, he was a few years after me.
But he was a pretty fair ballplayer.
I remember him.
- What's his real name? - You'll get writer's cramp.
Willie Joe Ellington Brown, the third.
- Friend of yours? - Not long he wasn't.
That sucker ripped off the silver medallions that the team won for winning the league championship, and then he hawked 'em.
- Do you know where I might find him now? - No.
But if you do, you give him a fat lip for me.
- It'd be my pleasure.
(dramatic synth music) - What did you do, huh? - She do something? - Yeah, she made a funny move.
What were you up to, huh? (beeping) - [Dispatcher.]
Four Adam 14 and any other unit able to respond.
A 211 silent at Dupree's Jewels.
Carlyle and Coronado Way, Four Adam 14 handle, code three.
- Four Adam 14.
Roger.
Let's go.
(siren wailing) - Police, freeze! - Jovina, let's go! Move it, move it! (gun firing) Jovina, move it! - Lotta help on the way, who hit you? - Salt and pepper team, gray sedan.
Driver is a black female.
Still on Coronado Way the last we saw.
Four Adam 14, officer down.
- You fool, you shot another cop! - Ain't that great? (laughing) - Chuck's gonna make it, Mitch, take it easy.
- Sarge, it comes right on top of Stacy Sheridan getting hit.
It's gotta be the same guy who did them both.
- No question.
All right, you guys.
We're at Four Adam You'll take all incoming calls.
Log all reports from parameter positions and search units.
(beeping) Hold on.
Four Adam 30.
- Four Adam 16 and Four Adam 12.
We found the gray sedan in the parking lot, and empty, at Admiral Way and Grove.
Looks like they switched vehicles.
- Put a hold on the gray sedan.
And you guys get back here right away.
And tell Four Adam until the lab boys get there.
- That's a roger.
- Trying real hard to make my day.
- Sergeant Hooker, come on.
Hooker, you were under a direct order to stay away from this case.
- Well there was an officer down and wounded, what did you expect me to do? - When you heard the description of the gray sedan, you could have-- - The gray sedan is in a parking lot somewhere.
The big guy and his buddy are off and running while you're standing-- - That's enough, Hooker.
Lieutenant Bannon will take over the command post.
There's no reason for you to remain at the scene.
- I telephoned a friend of mine.
He gave me Toothpick's name.
Willie Joe Ellington Brown III.
- A mouthful.
Does he have a record? - GTA, assault, stat rape, he's expanding.
I'm meeting my friend at Sherry's bar.
Why don't the two of you drop in? - What's up? - Mitchell heard our black suspect yell to the driver, move it, Jovina.
- There certainly aren't a million girls with a name like Jovina.
- That's for sure.
I'm gonna drop by the hospital on my way down.
If I'm delayed, why don't you two introduce yourself.
His name is Cassius Isley.
- Her condition is still unstable.
There's a lessening of pressure, however, and no sign of bleeding or hemorrhaging in the brain.
- What about the lining around her heart? - Blood is now starting to flow more steadily and in larger amounts from the pericardial sac into the heart proper.
- You said that could be fatal.
- It will be fatal if we don't operate.
I guess I've been hiding behind all this medical terminology because I wasn't anxious to tell you that.
I've scheduled her operation for five this afternoon, with your permission.
- You have it.
- [Dispatcher.]
Four Adam 30, meet Four Adam 16 on track two.
- Roger, Dispatch.
This is Four Adam 30, go 60.
- We met with your friend, Cassius Isley.
He remember a Jovina from the neighborhood.
A hooker.
And she was Toothpick's girlfriend in school.
Name is Jovina Wright.
She was in the slammer on a drug bust but she's out on parole.
- Do you have an address on her? - [Corrigan.]
Living in a Mulberry Street development.
- Meet me there.
- We're on our way.
(exciting synth music) - West building, apartment 1305.
Hold it right there, Jovina.
Police! Toothpick, give it up! Stick with her.
- Oh man.
- I want him alive.
All right, Willie Joe Brown, I want the big guy, and you're gonna help me find him.
- No! You find him yourself, sucker! Let go, let go! - Hey you, come here, come here! - Let go of me! - Where is he? - I ain't telling you nothing! - Hooker, for God's sakes, you said you wanted him alive! - Cuff him.
- [Romano.]
Hands on your head! - Get in.
- They want you at the hospital, Hooker.
Stacy was conscious briefly, she asked for you.
It just came over the horn.
- Okay.
Take him in, Jovina stays with me.
I'll handcuff her to the steering wheel if I have to.
- Hey! Hey, Romano just stopped you from hammering her boyfriend's brains out! - Think about it.
That turkey's not gonna talk, but Jovina might.
The trouble is, you take her in, some bail bondsman could have her kicked loose before you finish writing the arrest report.
- Look.
If you take her now, it's like holding her incommunicado.
Corrigan and I can hold both of them.
We're off her investigation at the scene.
- We could even ask for a search warrant.
They gotta be here while we get it.
And here while we search the place.
- If you aren't careful, you two are gonna be in as much trouble as I am.
Thank you.
- Okay, everybody out! - Hey man, what is this, huh? - Look, don't give me a hard time, or I'll finish the job that Hooker started.
Okay? - Hey what the hell you say, copper? Hey watch your mouth, that's right! - Hey shut up bigmouth! You're the one got me into this mess.
- Hooker.
- I'm here, Stacy.
- Suspect.
Male Caucasian.
Brown I don't - You rest easy.
We'll take care of him.
- Am I gonna die? - Are you kidding? A fighter like you? You came kicking out of your mother's womb.
I oughta know, I was there.
Remember? I was there.
And I'm here now, Stacy.
- I'm afraid.
(fast beeping) - Nurse.
Don't you remember what you used to tell me? When you were a little girl? That the boogeyman would come in the middle of the night, and you'd throw him out on his head, because that's what I told you to do.
You're a fighter, Stacy.
You can lick anything.
- Was she able to say anything to you, Hooker? - She tried to give me a description of the suspect.
- [Dispatcher.]
Four Adam 30.
Ballistics reports a match between the slugs that wounded Officer Jay Mitchell at the marina jewelry store heist, and those that wounded Officer Sheridan.
Any further requests? - Negative.
Show me off the air for investigation.
Take him to the car, she stays with me.
- Jovina.
- Shut up! - Let go of me, Jovina, don't you say it! - You lay a hand on me and I'll scream down the neighborhood.
- I'm here to help you, not hurt you.
- (laughing) Sure you are.
- You're in deep, Jovina.
Armed robbery.
Assault with intent to kill a police officer.
You're looking at a lot of time.
- That's heavy, huh? - Yeah, that's heavy.
You're a young woman now.
You're gonna be an old woman when you come out.
An old woman, with no figure, who spent most of her years in jail.
You've already hit one jail, you're on parole.
- He made me drive that car.
- That may be, but it's not gonna help you now.
- What will? - A name.
- You mean that big white dude? I don't know.
- Let's go, Jovina.
- Come on.
I do know something.
- Sure you do.
- The place where he and Toothpick meet is a cafeteria.
- Called what? They met at a place called Anna's, downtown.
I'm gonna stake it out.
- What about us? - If I find him, you'll be the first to know.
- More coffee? You must be on your tenth cup.
- That big guy over there.
Does he come in here often? - Yeah, like every day.
Sometimes two or three times.
- Alone? - Mostly.
Couple of times a skinny black dude joined him.
- Big guy, dark hair, tan shirt, dark pants, just came in here.
Is he registered? - Uh, 505.
- Why don't you do me a favor.
Call the Academy Precinct, tell them Sergeant Hooker needs backup.
Tell them to send Four Adam 16.
- Four Adam 16.
- You got it.
Is there a freight elevator in the back? - No, just stairs.
- Thank you.
(gun firing) (sirens wailing) Good morning.
- Glad you're still here.
Where's Dad? - We just brought you up from post-operative.
He's downstairs talking to the doctors that worked on you.
- I remember some of that.
Not much.
- Came out beautifully.
- You wouldn't lie to me.
- Never.
- Like you always said.
Street cops have tough hides.
Did you get him? - I got him.
- Did you get him by the book? - Well, there are a few things Internal Affairs aren't thrilled about.
But, I never went over the line.
Worst that can happen is a few days off.
- Should have gone by the book, Hooker.
That's what you've always taught us.
- Well, we'll talk about it when you're on your feet.
- Am I gonna be all right? Walk and talk and all that good stuff.
- You're going to be terrific, kid.
- You know when I was in there, the boogeyman came for me again.
- But you threw him out on his head.
- Just like you told me too.
(exciting synth music)