REPORTER: This is Channel 8 News reporting with an update
to yesterday's wild police pursuit and shootout
where three suspects and one police officer
were killed by gunfire at Third and Jefferson.
Shortly after being taken into custody,
Jose Fausto, the last suspect
was gunned down by an unknown...
( gunshot ) ( prisoner screams )
Down! Everybody down! Down!
CAVALIERE: Somebody shot this guy
in front of all these cops?
They did not want him talking to us.
This was not some doped up drive-by.
The shooter had skill.
Just one shot went through the ten ring.
How'd they know Fausto was here?
I don't know.
I bet you he tried to reach out for help, you know?
Maybe money or a ticket out of here.
I'll check the phone records
and see if there was any calls in or out.
Glad I'm not Vartann.
He's got to tell the UnderSheriff.
MCKEEN: Are you seriously
telling me our only live suspect,
a cop killer, was gunned down in your custody?
I'm sorry to say yes, sir.
And you didn't catch the shooter?
That's also correct, sir.
Stop calling me sir,
you worthless... ( sighs)
Where's Grissom?
ECKLIE: He's on his way.
All right, let's start without him.
ORTEGA: Sergeant Adams and Officer Bell
were making a routine traffic stop on a Buick.
Before they were able to effect the stop,
a stolen Caprice intervened.
Adams said they just cut him off and started firing.
They were followed in pursuit by officers Davis and Carroll
and detectives Brass and Curtis.
The, uh, Caprice TC'd during the pursuit.
And they just kept firing.
We got three of them off of prints.
Priors for narcotics and connections
to the Mexican Mafia.
And additional set of prints from the Caprice
came back to Jose Fausto,
the guy shot at the motel.
I've heard enough about him.
Why would these knuckleheads pull in front of a police car
making a traffic stop and engage us in a gunfight?
If the Buick was moving drugs,
maybe the Caprice was providing security,
keeping the cops and rival gang members away.
We don't have the Buick,
so there's no evidence to confirm that.
Well, if these guys were a bunch of drug-dealing thugs,
why on the news were they unarmed
and we shot 'em in the back?
'Cause that's what the eyewitnesses are saying.
And that we shot an innocent high school kid
riding his bike.
Uh, Ricardo Estevez, male Hispanic, 22,
shot in the alley east of Third.
Three entrance wounds to the front torso, none to the back.
Ballistics matched the bullets to Sergeant Carroll's gun.
Recovered a .45 auto next to the body.
ORTEGA: Captain Brass states the suspect had it pointed at the sergeant
when he came around the corner.
We have eyewitnesses
who claim that they saw the suspect with his hands raised
just before he was shot.
Can we resolve this?
Sergeant Carroll
partially confirms eyewitness accounts.
When Captain Brass approached,
he momentarily took his eyes off the suspect.
When he looked back, the suspect was holding a gun.
Probably pulled it from his waistband.
There's no evidence
to place the gun in the suspect's hand at that point.
What about the guy in the other alley?
Salvador Rosario, 19, also shot in the front.
Autopsy's pending.
Chemical tests show that he held a gun.
You're not going to believe this.
A bullet from Officer Davis' gun hit the suspect's revolver,
jamming the cylinder.
That would mean the revolver
had to be pointing at Officer Davis.
There are several eyewitnesses who claim that they saw him
plant the gun on the body.
It wasn't planted. It was mishandled.
Mishandled by who?
Contrary to policy,
Officer Davis prematurely picked up the gun.
Detective Curtis instructed him
to set it back down, which he did.
What are you doing? Put it down.
Sorry, I was just trying to secure his gun.
An eyewitness seeing that
certainly could misinterpret it as planting a gun.
MCKEEN: Please tell me you've got some good news.
I have the autopsy findings on Leandro Chavez.
He died of survivable wounds.
Bled out
at the crime scene waiting for transport.
Dame una ambulanica quey.
I don't speak Spanish.
There's justification for this.
I can't wait to hear what that is.
Paramedics prioritized transport of the injured.
Downed officer first,
civilians next.
By the time they got to the suspect,
he'd passed on.
Just a little retroactive birth control.
See, this is the problem that the community
has with us.
You don't speak Spanish, so you think they don't speak English
and then when you run your mouth...
All right, keep on point here.
Which one of these buttheads shot Officer Bell?
We have reason to believe that Officer Bell
was killed by friendly fire.
( gunshots )
It was a through-and-through,
and we haven't recovered the bullet yet.
It's a big crime scene.
Unacceptable.
Get back out there and find that bullet.
I don't care if it takes everybody you got
working around the clock.
I said we haven't found it yet.
I didn't say we weren't looking.
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♪ I really want to know ♪
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♪Oh-oh-oh ! ♪ ♪ Who... ♪
♪ Come on, tell me who are you, you, you ♪
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I'm supposed to do whatever it takes
to find that bullet.
Don't worry about the overtime.
As soon as day shift comes in,
I'll send them out, too.
Hey, Grissom.
So Warrick recovered a nine-millimeter pistol
from Fausto's motel room, and I matched it to the cartridge case
from the kid in the hospital.
I also found the kid's bike there.
Shot him in the back for his bike. Great.
Hey.
I left you a couple of messages.
Oh, yeah... I haven't gotten to them yet.
Sorry.
You're on administrative leave, though.
You should be home getting some rest.
Yeah, I tried.
But I...
can't stop thinking about this... this Bell shooting.
It's understandable.
Grissom, I think there may be a possibility
that maybe... I shot him.
Sofia... we can't discuss the investigation.
It's, it's something I remember when I was giving my statement.
Then it's already on the record.
No, something I didn't mention.
Sofia...
Please listen to me.
Bell was between me and the suspect.
I was shooting over his cover, which is a violation of policy.
I was, I was just trying to stay alive.
But if I did it, I...
Hey, Grissom, I have a question.
Sofia?
You're on administrative leave.
I know.
You should not be in this building.
I was just talking to a friend.
If I can't talk to a friend,
who the hell am I supposed to talk to?
Any friend outside the department.
And how many friends outside of work do you have, Sarah?
Maybe I should go talk to my mother.
Oh, no, sorry. I forgot. She's a cop, too.
I can recommend a departmental psychologist.
All right, then.
This was a really bad idea. I'm sorry.
Hey, listen.
One of the officers searching for the shooter
found an expended cartridge up there on the seventh floor.
That would put him in the right position.
Freemont Street's not far.
It makes for an easy escape.
Good job.
Nice.
.223 Remington.
Most likely from a semiauto.
Didn't even bother to pick it up.
Yeah. Wasn't afraid of getting caught.
I'll give it to Bobby. Have him run it through IBIS.
See if the gun was used before.
( over radio ): Vartann, this is Cavaliere.
We've recovered an expended .223 cartridge case
from a building overlooking the motel.
It's on its way to the lab now.
Scene here is secure.
Patrol just called.
They found a 411-A behind 5203 Maryland Parkway.
Sounds like it might be the Buick Regal.
I'm going to head over there now.
CAVALIERE: Buick Regal, no plates.
You run the VIN?
Yeah. It came up stolen.
Yeah. It's a good chance this is the car we're looking for.
Yep.
Torched it to destroy any evidence.
Let's get this thing towed back to the lab, okay?
You got it.
ORTEGA: Sergeant Adams, this is your standard
after-shooting walk through, okay?
Now I want you to describe to us
exactly what happened yesterday morning.
We were southbound on Roosevelt.
Bell observed a male and female Hispanic
having a domestic dispute.
Where were they?
Over in that last spot.
They got out of a green Geo Metro.
Walked this way. By the time we'd turned around,
they'd gotten into the Buick Regal.
They were driving away.
She was pregnant, about to pop,
just like Bell's wife.
He said we should pull 'em over.
Which way'd they go?
Southbound on Roosevelt.
As soon as we turned on Desert Springs,
the Caprice cut us off.
Okay, thanks.
Hey, hang around for about a minute or two, okay?
I'll give you a ride home.
Your thoughts?
I wonder if that camera works.
Well, it's worth checking out.
Come on. I'll even let you buy me a donut.
I got to the end of my road.
And? Well, the suspect started shooting
near the intersection of Jefferson and Desert Springs.
That's nearly 20 blocks north of the crime scene.
All ammo evidence was
7.62-millimeter casings and bullets.
Only AK ammo?
No police cartridge cases or bullets?
Not one out of 233 items.
But cops don't get to shoot car-to-car,
only bad guys do, right?
Oh, hey, Greg. Been on vacation?
Look, I know the undersheriff's on your back,
so I figured I better get to you quick.
Okay, you got to me.
Found red clay chips and dust
in the gouges on Ricardo Estevez's .45.
He was the guy
that was in the east alley with Brass.
Red clay chips?
Traces consistent with roof tiles and clay pots.
Who keeps their gun in a clay pot?
That would be no one.
Trace evidence is fresh,
so it definitely came from the alley.
In a crisis, you can always count on me.
Doesn't he bug you?
No more so than anyone else around here.
Sara, will you come with me to the east alley, please?
I thought my top priority as per the undersheriff
was finding the bullet that went through Bell.
Well, this is per me.
Come on. It'll be fun.
Okay.
Sara? Yeah?
Call Hodges at the lab.
Have him bring two exemplar .45s out here.
I'll get Ortega to bring Brass and Sergeant Carroll.
Are... you gonna tell me what's going on?
What goes up... must come down.
So, where exactly was Estevez standing
when you guys saw him? Right there,
facing this way. That's right.
And he had a gun in his hand. He had a gun in his hand.
And I shot a, uh, armed suspect
who'd been shooting at the police, sir.
I believe you.
But the witnesses may also be right.
Look, don't make this some intellectual exercise
for your own personal amusement.
Check it out. Hodges, stand over here.
Yes, sir.
Right here.
See that roof?
It's red clay.
Toss one of the guns up there.
Actually, they're Bobby Dawson's guns.
He made me sign for them-- I'm sure
he wouldn't appreciate if we brought them back damaged.
Technically, they're my guns-- so toss one up there.
Just for the record, I've never really been good at sports.
Sara?
Yeah.
How does that prove the guy tossed the gun up there?
You recovered it from the ground.
There's a cracked tile up on the roof.
I found a series of scratches
stretching from the cracked tile to the end of the roof.
I found scratches and red clay dust
in the suspect's .45.
GRISSOM: It explains how the witnesses
could see Estevez with his hands up, and Sergeant Carroll
then saw him with a gun in his hand.
The gun's still up there.
Sara...
try it again.
Stop! Police!
Get down!
Don't move.
There you have it.
WILLOWS: There's the Geo Metro.
There's the Buick Regal.
Oh, she's pregnant, all right.
Doesn't look like she wants to go with him.
He's not giving her much choice.
So, just how bad was the meeting with the undersheriff?
Worse than the dentist.
Better than the proctologist.
Mm.
ECKLIE: What's he doing?
Looks like he's pulling out a hide-a-key.
ECKLIE: Means the car was waiting for them.
Whatever they were about to do,
they weren't going to do it in the Metro.
WILLOWS: Hey, Nick? Hey.
Have you checked the inside of the wheel wells?
No. I was having too much fun in here.
Oh, yeah, I can see that.
Um, well... since you're already dirty,
would you mind checking out the left rear one for me?
Yeah, sure. Thank you.
What are you looking for?
I am looking for something to hide a key in.
Okay. Although, most hide-a-keys are held on with a magnet,
which would've been demagnetized
by the heat of the gasoline fire.
Right.
Nope. Well,
it probably fell off at the location.
Maybe. Auto transport usually sweeps up the debris.
Good luck with that.
( heart beating steadily )
( gunshots )
( heartbeat continues )
MAN: My son was riding his bike to school.
Today he's in a coma.
But when he wakes up,
when he... opens his eyes again and smiles at his mother,
he will see all the... flowers
and cards that he's been sent from total strangers
wishing him well and...
praying for his recovery.
Sheriff Burdick h-hasn't called.
I've left so many messages I've lost count.
It's inconvenient, I know,
but I have questions.
Who did this to my son?
Why did they do it?
No one wants to answer me?
If the cops didn't shoot him, why won't they talk to me?
If I have to go to court to find out,
if I have to sue each and every officer involved,
I'll do it.
I will put the sheriff in front of a jury
and get my answers there.
( phone rings )
McKeen.
Yes, sir. I saw the news.
I still think we should wait to issue a statement,
at least until the lab has something concrete.
Hodges, it's not so much that these guns are my babies, okay?
It's just that in order to replace them,
I got to go to Property, got to locate another gun,
fill out all that paperwork, so all I'm saying is, I would appreciate
not being left out of the loop, okay?
I'm only a soldier in this war.
The general gave me an order, and I followed it.
DAWSON: Whatever.
I've finished checking this batch for trace.
Bobby, police said they entered
my cartridge case from the sniper into IBIS.
It has become my priority, or so I was informed
by Under Sheriff McKeen-- give me about an hour?
Okay.
I got blood.
Where's it from?
Expended bullet, Torres house,
candle in the living room. That's our through-and-through.
DAWSON: Looks like a copper-jacketed
nine-millimeter,
consistent with cop ammo.
( grunting )
Brass, Sofia,
Adams, Davis and Carroll were all shooting nines.
Compare it with their firearms ASAP.
I'm gonna go tell Grissom.
Looking for something?
At least this car still has a nice hubcap.
Where'd you find that?
On the pursuit route, Jefferson, about ten blocks north of Third.
Well, I've been through this car twice.
There's no evidence of cartridge casings, blood,
drugs of any kind.
So there was nothing here to begin with,
They cleaned it out pretty good before they torched it.
Hey, Nick, Grissom.
We found the through- and-through bullet.
Bobby's doing a comparison.
I sent a sample of blood to DNA.
BRASS: Hey.
I'm glad you called.
I've been thinking about you.
Good. Yeah, I wasn't sure.
How you doing?
I've gone a little crazy.
Yeah. It's the waiting.
You know, I've been suspended or disciplined
like six or seven times,
and it's always the same, the waiting.
What you never forget is that
you know, a police officer lost his life.
( gunshot )
I have seen it so many times,
I don't know if it's real or not.
Jim, it's like he's looking at me--
like as if he... as if he knew.
Sofia, you got to get it out of your head; that's poison.
You telling me you're not thinking about it?
Oh, I'm thinking; I'm thinking about a lot of stuff.
Let me tell you something.
You know, when I was a young cop
in Jersey, there was this kid--
responded to an all shots fired.
Never got a radio call, never knew what hit him.
I was the first officer on the scene--
a patrolman, too.
You know, it tore up the department pretty good.
Everybody was all twisted and...
but we managed somehow to...
I don't know, get through it, some way.
Who shot him?
It really doesn't matter.
It does matter.
I could see Bell's face when I was shooting him,
which means I was... I was shooting near him.
I made a mistake.
I shouldn't have fired.
No, come on. It was chaos.
You were just responding to a situation.
It was instinct, it was training.
No.
Don't, don't think that way.
I'm always going to be the cop who shot a cop.
There's the green Geo Metro.
Okay, you come with me.
You two cover the back.
Stay with her.
( knocking )
Police! We have a search warrant! Open up!
Hey!
Suspect on the run!
He's gonna meet you here. Come on. Let's go.
We have her, Detective.
Wow. You had the baby
and got your figure back in one day.
That's impossible.
Believe me, I know.
My wife's had five kids.
Oh, Tina, baby-- no.
Peanut butter without the jelly?
She's trying to get me to cut down on sugar.
but this is ridiculous.
Here.
Thanks.
Do you ever want to be a cop?
Every time I get a speeding ticket, yeah.
No, I mean like guns and car chases
and "Put your back against the wall," that kind of stuff.
No, I prefer the scientific side of law enforcement.
Me, too.
( phone ringing )
Brown.
Hey, Catherine.
We got the couple driving the Buick.
Female wasn't pregnant.
She was a mule.
Really.
Found her rig for transporting narco inside the house,
and unless these guys were in the mail order business,
I think they were being shipped drugs.
BROWN: And delivering them
to the guys up the food chain.
Yeah.
You think these are the same guys who whacked Fausto?
It's the best lead we've got.
You were a passenger in a stolen vehicle
that failed to yield to the police.
We've also connected you to a drug ring
which was responsible
for the death of a police officer.
Miss Guerro?
You're looking at prison time, so think about it.
Whatever you could tell us about these guys
will be in your best interest.
Surveillance footage from Angie's Donut Shop
shows you carrying drugs
and getting into the delivery car.
That alone gets you ten years.
Okay, this is your last chance
for your client to help herself out.
You don't understand. We had no choice.
They would have killed us.
Who would've killed you?
There is nothing that you can do to me
that is worse than what they can do.
I'm done.
I'm not talking no more.
Mr. Contranos has served time for narcotics possession.
He's been deported three times
for entering the country illegally.
This time, we're going to throw away the key.
MAN: Mr. Contranos has no interest in speaking to you.
We're talking about the difference between
life without parole and the needle, here.
He's prepared to do his time.
Grissom, I managed to get a hit
off of that sniper cartridge case.
Links up to a drug rip-off in L.A. last year-- unsolved.
What about the phone records from the motel?
Fausto made one call about an hour before he died.
We ran it down to a disposable mobile phone.
So is there anything I can tell the undersheriff?
Yeah. Dead end on Fausto.
You tell him.
I got your results from the blood on the bullet.
It definitely belongs to Officer Bell.
This is my first deceased police officer.
I heard that his wife is pregnant.
Wendy, you understand that this is confidential.
Yes, sir. And you can't discuss it, even with your coworkers.
I understand what this means.
Hey. Warrick tell you about the IBIS hit?
Yeah.
How are you doing with Bell's bullet?
I was confirming my findings.
Don't want to make any mistakes.
Does that mean you have results?
The bullet has the right GRC's for a Sig-Sauer.
Sergeant Adams carries a Beretta.
Carroll, too.
Davis has a Glock, so that rules him out.
However, both detectives Brass and Curtis carry Sigs.
But take a look.
There's hardly any jacket left. Means there's almost
no chance of identifying that to a specific gun.
What if you had more time? Could you do it?
Sorry, boss. I mean, there's just no way
I can tell you who shot Officer Bell.
You know, based on the dates
of these address labels, it appears that Carlos
and Bianca were receiving
two to three drug shipments a day.
So the dogs hit on the boxes?
Yes, and Narco found trace amounts of cocaine,
for whatever that's worth.
Well, the return addresses are all bogus,
the couple is not talking,
and all four suspects
are dead.
There's nothing more we can do.
Okay, Nick, the cruiser's right front tire
is 19 feet, 5 inches
from the south curb.
Sara, the detective unit's left front tire
is five feet to inches from the south curb.
All right.
Nick, you be Brass.
Sara, you be Sofia.
Good.
I'll be Bell.
Officer Bell was crouched down behind his door.
Yo! I can't see you from here.
You're blocked by both cars.
Yeah, me either.
I'd have to shoot through both cars to get to you.
I processed them both-- no shots
entered from the back.
Can you see me here?
Yeah, I can see you. Yeah, now.
What would make Bell stand up in the middle of a gunfight?
Maybe he had to change positions.
We know that the suspects were starting
to run, right?
Okay, he popped up, took one in the vest.
Let's assume that.
We'll line up the exit trajectories
with the apartment window,
and we'll use lasers, but we may have to wait
until it's dark.
WILLOWS: We're turning on the lasers.
Is the candle in position?
Ready on this end.
Let me know when the beam hits the candle.
Good to go!
Uh... good height.
Move it six inches to the left.
Six inches to the left.
Oh, no, no. My left.
He meant the other left.
Right there.
Perfect.
I'll call you back.
Okay, we got the exit.
Now we need the entrance.
Sara, turn your laser on.
The path of my laser is off.
Yeah, it's a bad angle.
Move it to the left.
Gris... Hmm?
It's blocked by the car.
It's not possible.
Turn it off.
Nick, turn yours on.
Mine's been on the whole time.
It's still blocked.
Raise it up.
He stood up.
Well, your call was a little cryptic.
Must've got the results from the ballistics test.
We did, but it was inconclusive,
so I went back to the intersection and ran a reconstruction.
Well, I don't know how you reconstruct a war zone.
You have no idea what it was like.
I mean, it was a fire fight.
Have you talked to Sofia?
It wasn't Sofia.
You must have stood up...
fired at the suspects over the black and whites.
Officer Bell stood up at the same time,
right into your line of fire.
Fausto shot him in the vest, which spun him a little.
At the same time, you hit him in the neck.
( sighs ) Oh, I-I swear, I was behind the car, I...
I-I stood up?
Sheriff wants me to present our findings
at a community meeting in an hour.
( sighs )
Don't keep 'em waiting.
ORTEGA: I just received
a report from the Shooting Review Board.
You've been cleared.
You can go back to work.
Thank you.
( indistinct voices )
Hello. My name is Dr. Gil Grissom.
I'm the night shift supervisor
for the Las Vegas Police Department's Crime Lab.
( murmuring fades ) I'm not a police officer; I'm a scientist.
You work for the cops. That makes you a cop.
You're not on our side.
( loud clamoring voices )
Actually, I'm a forensics expert.
( murmuring fades ) My job is to identify,
collect, and examine physical evidence from a crime scene,
to determine who did what to whom and how did they do it.
I've been asked to come here today by the mayor
and Sheriff Burdick to present our analysis of the evidence
in this case to your community.
Why aren't they here? Why should we believe your evidence?
( loud murmuring )
Physical evidence cannot be wrong.
It doesn't lie.
It's not influenced by emotion or prejudice. ( murmuring fades )
It's... it's not confused by the excitement of the moment.
I'm here, in God's house,
to explain to you the truth
about exactly what happened the other day.
I'd like to start by showing you some photos.
This is a bullet that was recovered
from the Kevlar vest of Officer Daniel Bell,
now deceased.
What about my son?
What-What does the evidence say about my son?
Okay, if you like, we can start there.
Please.
This photo is a comparison of two cartridge cases.
The one on the right was found next to your son.
The one on the left
was test-fired from Jose Fausto's pistol.
As you can see, there are corresponding individual marks
on both cartridges.
These are unique, like fingerprints.
It means that they were fired from the same gun.
It proves that while attempting to escape from the police...
Jose Fausto shot your son Geraldo in the back.
Why would he do that?
We recovered your son's bicycle from Jose Fausto's motel room.
Your son was on his way to football practice.
( gunshot ) ( groans )
It appears that Jose Fausto shot your son
so he could use his bike.
( indistinct voices )
Jim, I was just on my way out, but if you want me to stay...
No, I-I think I can handle it. I think.
Thanks. Okay.
( indistinct voices )
( sighs )
The Shooting Review Board wants to talk to you.
You're going to have to explain your tactical decision
for shooting in the direction of a fellow officer.
I'm ready when they are.
As far as I'm concerned, there's no question...
it was a bad shoot.
I'll have to live with that.
( sighs )
( chuckles ) Oh, whoa!
Hey. What's your name?
Jeannie. Well, that's a pretty name.
Is that your mom over there?
Huh? Okay, be careful, Jeannie...
♪ ♪
( voice breaking ): Mrs. Bell... I'm Jim Brass.
I know.
I want you to know... if there's, um...
if there's any, um...
( gentle sobs )
( whispers ): I know it wasn't your fault.
( weeping )
I... I'm...
I'm so sorry.
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