| "Baby Killer" | ||
|---|---|---|
| ← | SVU, Episode 2.05 | → |
| Production number: E1411 First aired: 17 November 2000 | ||
 | ||
| Written By Lisa Marie Petersen & Dawn DeNoon Directed By Juan José Campanella | ||
Plot[]
6-year-old Carly Jackson, an African-American girl, is shot and killed by her 7-year-old classmate, Elias Barrera, on the schoolyard. Elias is found trying to dump the gun in a garbage can. Everyone is outraged at this horrific crime. Elias' parents are law-abiding citizens, and they don't have a gun in their house. Elias is too afraid say where he got the gun from.
Cabot wants to drop the charges against Elias, but cold-blooded Chief A.D.A. Charlie Phillips, who is seeking the position of District Attorney next year, won't let her, because it's such a politically-charged case that he thinks can get him elected if Elias is charged. Cabot sarcastically says, "Why don't we just apply for a change of venue to Texas, so we can have him executed?" Phillips coldly says, "No, Manhattan Family Court will be sufficient."
The investigation is complicated, but a big break comes when the lab technicians tell them that the same gun killed a 23-year-old drug dealer named Shorty the day before Elias shot Carly. The detectives track down Shorty's turf, and question Nicky Crow, who owns a religious store.
They also talk to Dorothea Strada, an overworked elderly woman who watches neighborhood children. Elias's parents left him there on occasion. The detectives try to track down a drug dealer named Sweetness, who hung out with Shorty. It turns out that Sweetness is Mrs. Strada's great-grandson, and he and Elias took walks into the park, where Elias was being used, against his will, as a pawn for drug dealers. When the cops go to Sweetness’s apartment, they find him dying with a slit throat, and his last word, uttered to Stabler, is Machete.
Elias says that there's a man known as Machete who killed Shorty. It actually happened at Mrs. Strada's apartment on a night when Elias was staying there. Elias picked up the gun there, where it was stashed in a couch. It turns out that Elias had never intended to shoot Carly -- he had brought the gun to school because he feared for his life. Elias pulled the gun out, and fired, when he saw Machete at the schoolyard, because he thought Machete was there to kill him. Elias identifies Machete when Benson and Stabler walk him to the religious store with a mask on. Machete turns out to be Nicky Crow. Benson and Stabler arrest Nicky.
Finally, after Phillips dumps the case on Cabot, she decides that she'll drop the charges. She's backed by various members of the group C.A.L.M., a racial unity group that wants to end violence, and to her surprise, Carly's mother Lorena, who understands that Elias never intended for Carly to get shot.
Cabot enjoys a moment of camaraderie with the detectives in the unit, until a phone call comes in, and they're called to the scene of another shooting. The victim who was killed is Elias, who was shot by a 12-year-old African-American boy named Tommy "T.J." James, who, as he's led away by the police and yells, "You can't kill a sister, and just walk." Stabler worries about the cycle of violence continuing.
Cast[]
Main cast[]
- Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler
- Mariska Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson
- Richard Belzer as Detective John Munch
- Stephanie March as A.D.A. Alexandra Cabot
- Ice-T as Detective Odafin Tutuola
- Dann Florek as Captain Donald Cragen
Recurring cast[]
- Josh Pais as Attorney Robert Sorensen
- Leslie Ayvazian as Judge Susan Valdera
- Carolyn McCormick as Dr. Elizabeth Olivet
- Jeffrey DeMunn as Chief Assistant DA Charlie Phillips
Guest cast[]
- Nicolas Martí Salgado as Elias Barrera
- Carlos Leon as Nicky Crow
- Sara Ramirez as Mrs. Barrera
- Robert Montano as Mr. Barrera
- Gloria Irizarry as Dorothea Strada
- LaChanze as Ms. Pivik
- Brian Adam DeJesus as Rafael McCreary
- Jaliyl Lynn as Jamal Morales
- Donovon Ian H. McKnight as Thomas "T.J." James
- Jomo Morris as Sammy
- Gene Canfield as Detective Geary
- Patricia Rae as Sonia Paredes
- Ira Hawkins as Judge
- Gilbert Cruz as Magazine Vendor
- Daniel Roman as Tony Calas
- David S. Jung as Technician
- Tracy Howe as Uniform
- Sidné Anderson as Lorena Jackson
- James Villani as Bobby Cruise
- Jim Iorio as Ballistics Tech
- Frank Lombardi as Officer Larrabe
- Vanessa Quijas as Reyna McCreary
- Ming Lee as Kyung Kwon
- Maria-Elena Mestayer as Mrs. Ortiz
- Linda Hazel Humes as Mrs. Watson
- John Hartmann as Clerk
- Sasha Toro as Rosario
- Ron Bohmer as Dr. Randall Forbes
- Antonio D. Charity as Man in Crowd
- Wendy Barrie-Wilson as Dr. Elise Heath
- Michelle Ragusa as Reporter #1
- Dan Remmes as Reporter #2
References[]
- ASPCA
- Charity Miranda
- Columbine High School massacre
- Gaza Strip
- Nora Lewin
- Antonio Strada (victim)
- Carly Jackson (victim)
- Jack McCoy
- Elizabeth Rodgers
- Texas
- Wagner Detention Center
Quotes[]
- Cabot: You know as well as I do that the youngest they've ever convicted was eleven.
- Phillips: Yes, but that was pre-Columbine. Since then, there's been an epidemic of ever-younger kids killing kids with no consequence. People are fed up with it.
- Cabot: And you're bored of being the Chief Assistant D.A. I know you're looking to replace Lewin next fall but let me tell you, if you think you can put a little boy in jail just so you can prove you're tough on crime you've got to be kidding.
- Phillips: He's old enough to know the difference between right and wrong.
- Cabot: But not to understand the consequences of his actions.
- Phillips: He brought a gun to school. He knew what he was doing. And this... that gives us intent.
- Cabot: Why don't you just apply for a change of venue to Texas so we can have him executed?
- Phillips: No. Manhattan Family Court will be sufficient.
- McCreary: There. You satisfied?
- Munch: Whoa, whoa, whoa!
- Tutuola: Put the gun down on the table.
- Munch: You carry that around in your purse?
- McCreary: You know, sometimes I don't leave the hospital until 3 a.m. I have to take a subway, a bus, and walk four blocks through this neighborhood to get home.
- Tutuola: You know, carrying a concealed weapon is a felony.
- McCreary: I don't. I leave it at home so the appliances can defend themselves.
- Lab Technician: Compact, lightweight, hammerless.
- Benson: So simple, even a 7-year-old can use it.
- [about Elias' picture that he drew]
- Benson: When he drew this, he wasn't plotting out Carly Jackson's murder. This was a cry for help. He wanted somebody to know what he saw.
- Cabot: He's been through an interrogation, a court hearing, taken from his family and placed in detention. Why wouldn't he have said something by now?
- Cragen: Look at the players involved: drug dealers and killers. If Elias was drawn into this world at all, he knows what happens to people who talk.
- [after another child is killed]
- Benson: Cycle never ends, does it?
- Stabler: Welcome to the Gaza Strip.
Background information and notes[]
- Although "baby killer" usually refers to child murder, the innuendo of the title also implies the killer being a child as well.
- Olivet mentions she left the D.A.'s office and works as a defense witness for a child in this episode. She had previously testified in the defense of a child, Jenny Brandt, in the Law & Order episode "Killerz".
Episode scene cards[]
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|
|
Home of |
Office of Chief |
23rd Precinct |
| 4 | 5 | 6 |
|---|---|---|
|
15th Precinct |
Office of |
Family Court |
| Previous episode: "Legacy" |
"Baby Killer" Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 2 |
Next episode: "Noncompliance" |