It's all yours. Your very own tenant property.
Thought your dad was on the inside.
When'd he get out?
I haven't spoken to that man in over 20 years.
I don't know what you want from me.
You can't just go to prison and then not expect
for me to wanna see you.
I didn't know another way.
You know, I own a building.
I got an empty unit. You could stay.
There we go.
What's up, Larr? Qué pasó?
- Kev. - What's up?
Just running to the store, playing my numbers.
Where are you headed?
Gotta go up there to 3A.
Ms. Castillo's got a leaky sink,
so I gotta check that out.
You know, you buy a building,
you don't really stop fixing it.
Where you learn all this stuff?
YouTube.
You know, taxpayers of Illinois
paid a good price for me
to take classes when I was inside...
Plumbing, electric.
Be happy to help you out around here, if you want.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
I think I'm good.
- Okay. - All right.
Well, see you around.
Bye.
Okay.
Try it one more time, Mama Castillo.
Okay, Kevin. Fingers crossed.
Fingers crossed.
Look at that.
Okay.
Man, I love what you've done with this place.
Thank you.
My family, my nietos, they come Sunday after church.
We'll make papusas.
- Frijoles and queso? - Y los chicharrones.
I know you're gonna save some for the landlord.
Yes.
You give me a home in the middle of Burnside.
I'll save for you, mijo.
Gracias.
And if anything else happens with that sink,
you just let me know, and I'll come right back...
Was that a gun?
Stay right here. Lock the door.
Don't go anywhere.
- Hey, was that a gunshot? - It's okay.
- I got it. - What's going on, Kev?
Everybody relax. I got it. I got it.
Yo.
You hear anything, see anything?
Nah. Nothing.
Okay. Get back, Jamal. I got this.
Kevin!
Pops?
Kev! Kevin!
In here. Over here.
- Hey! - Okay.
Hey!
Damn. What the hell?
Malik?
What the hell happened?
The shot was right below my apartment.
I felt it through my feet. Found him like this.
Okay, I need you to keep applying pressure right there.
See if you can feel the pulse with that other hand.
There's a lot of blood, but...
Yeah, I think so.
I can find one.
911, what's your emergency?
Officer Kevin Atwater, badge number 52784.
On scene.
Shots fired at 3256 Cottage Grove.
We got a tender-age kid with a gunshot wound to the torso.
I need you to roll ambo
and roll some cars right now, please.
Okay, Malik. Malik.
We're gonna get you right, okay?
Can you look at me?
We gotta take him.
We can't wait. We gotta take him.
- Yeah, yeah. - Come on. Up.
Come on, little man.
CREDITS
- Give us space! - What happened?
- Back up!
- What happened to him? - Malik!
- Is that Malik? - Malik!
We got you. We got you.
Okay, he's got a faint pulse, one GSW, no exit.
Malik!
Is it my son?
Janessa, he fighting, okay? He fighting.
Let's get the mom up there. Just let her in.
We gotta go.
Come on. Come on.
I've got no description.
I need you to hold all the exits at every door,
you understand me?
Son, what can I do?
You didn't see anybody running from that basement?
- Nobody at all? - No.
I ran down, found him just like you found us.
Okay.
Well, you gotta do GSR.
All right, go right over there.
Give those people your clothes.
All right. Yeah.
Whatever you need.
Hey.
Tac shut it down?
Yeah. Two-block perimeter.
Victim's name is Malik Thompson.
11 years old.
Took a gunshot wound to the chest, no exit wound.
We got a 9-millimeter shell casing right there.
Malik lives in this building.
No weapon. No sign of an offender.
All right, tenants have access down here?
Yes, sir... for laundry,
and there's a few storage units right there.
Got any exterior cameras on the building?
No. No, not out back.
That was next on the list, though, Sarge.
All right, you take the lead outside.
No one comes in or out till they're cleared.
Copy. I'll get Ruz to come back.
All right, rest of us,
this whole place is a crime scene.
- Let's clear it. - Copy.
We're looking for a witness or an offender.
So everyone take a floor, canvass as you go.
I'm Sergeant Voight.
We're investigating an incident in the basement.
Did you hear a gunshot?
Yeah, I heard it.
But didn't see a thing.
Malik's a nice kid.
Polite, sweet.
Sure, I saw him earlier.
- But today? - No.
Look, I don't want you to be alarmed...
But for your own safety,
would you mind if I came inside?
Take a look around?
3B is clear. Just one more unit up here.
4A clear.
- 2C clear. - 4B clear.
Quién está? Who's there?
Ms. Castillo, it's Kevin.
You saw something?
I know what happens to people who talk to the police.
I've seen it.
I understand, but this is Malik.
He's in the hospital.
Janessa is hurting more than we can ever imagine,
so they need your help.
And it's me.
You know you can talk to me. I'll protect you.
After you ran out, I looked out the window.
I saw a boy running from the building.
Okay. What was the boy's name?
I don't know.
I don't think he lives here, but he's always around.
- I see him. - Yeah?
Is there anything else?
He was carrying a bag with...
Handles? Like a duffel bag?
And the jacket, a red jacket.
He always wears the red jacket.
All right. Red jacket. Thank you so much.
You know that helps us.
Is there anything else?
Only... he...
He's one of the boys your father knows.
My father?
That gunpowder test was clear.
What's going on now?
Witnesses are telling me that you got boys
in the neighborhood that you know?
Who are they talking about? What boys?
Hey, easy.
I just help out the kids on the block.
That's all.
I fix their bike chains, I put air in their footballs,
I give them odd jobs.
Yeah, I need names.
There's little Lonnie, Malik, Oscar, Nico...
They don't all live in this building?
No. Not Nico. And not Oscar.
Either one of them wear a red jacket?
Yeah.
Oscar. Why?
Why?
Where's Torres?
Testifying in a jury trial all week.
Oscar, full name Oscar Guzman, 12 years old.
He was confirmed by the tenants in the photo array.
He was running from the basement after the shooting.
Well, if he lives here,
what's he doing over in Burnside?
Chatham and Burnside share a school district.
He's got a lot of friends over there.
Plus his buddies say he likes to hang at Kev's place
'cause it's safe.
- Can I help you? - Yeah. Chicago PD.
Are your parents home?
It's just my mom, but she's at work.
Can I help you?
What's your name?
- Martina. - Martina.
Okay. We're looking for Oscar.
That's your little brother, right?
Yeah.
Is... is he in trouble?
Well, we just wanna ask him a few questions.
Shouldn't take us too long.
Yeah. Yeah.
He... he just went back to his room a minute ago.
Thanks.
Oscar.
Oscar!
Oscar! Come on.
You gotta open up.
Does he usually lock his door?
No.
May I?
Yeah.
Oscar?
Window's open. He must have run.
I got a bag with blood on it.
What is that?
It's heroin.
It's what?
No, no. That's a mistake.
That's not my brother's.
What's going on?
Hey, we're running all the locals on the dope.
- If anything pops, I'll shout. - Copy. Thanks, Up.
Yeah.
We have a parole officer picking your mom up from work.
She'll be here soon, but in the meantime,
we need to know what you know about that duffel bag.
Look, what I know is,
there's no way that bag is Oscar's.
Confirmation that the blood on that bag was Malik's.
The bag was under your brother's bed,
and he ran as soon as he knew that the cops
- were at the door. - Okay, I... I don't...
I don't know what to tell you.
Martina, your brother's on the run.
Where would he go?
I don't know!
Look, I'm not trying to be, like, difficult.
But Oscar...
Oscar's a nerdy kid.
It's not like he's been on the run before.
Kevin?
What's up, Sarge?
Your father's here.
I need to talk to you.
Okay.
Let's talk.
With all these cops around?
Come over here.
All right, what's going on? We're busy.
I heard, police went to Oscar's house.
He in trouble?
- It's not looking good. - Listen to me.
Ain't no way in hell that boy shot Malik.
He and Malik are tight.
That doesn't mean that he couldn't have done this.
Why do you think you know this kid?
'Cause I do.
He's just a sweet kid with a messy life.
Well, right now, that sweet kid
looks like he's on the run until we bring him in.
Run? The kid's 12.
He's not running, he's hiding.
And I think I might know where.
I'll cover the other side in case he's here.
Copy that.
Yeah, the kids stop here after school.
They hang out at a hideout right down there.
How do you know that?
Because I walk them home from school sometime
and drop them here when they want.
Why are you walking kids around anywhere?
You know, Latin Players, Gangster Prophets
are all over the place when school lets out,
looking for recruits.
They don't like it so much when the answer's no.
So what, you, like, an escort or something?
You know, most of the young guys see me as an OG.
So they back off... Most of the time.
That's Oscar.
Yo, we got eyes on Oscar.
Hey, watch out.
Oscar. Hey.
I'm Officer Atwater.
I just wanna talk to you real quick.
Your mom and your sister are real worried about you.
- So am I. Oscar, don't... - Oscar, I'm police.
- You gotta stop, all right? - Just stop right there, okay?
Can I see your hands?
Would you... gun!
- Oscar, drop the gun. - Okay, Oscar!
Do not point that gun at me. Put it down, okay?
- Oscar, no. - Put it down!
Oscar, listen.
Oscar, just take a breath and drop it.
Oscar, look at me and put it down, all right?
Nobody wants to hurt you, Oscar.
- Oscar, no. - Put down the gun.
Lew, back up!
Lew!
Lew.
Lew, what are you doing?
This ain't you, Oscar. I know that.
Now, let's show them that together, okay?
We're gonna straighten this whole mess out, me and you.
- Lew. - Yeah. I got you.
I got you.
You're all right.
Yeah.
Now, we gonna straighten this whole mess out, niño.
Lew, get the hell out of there.
You all right.
I got you.
All right.
Now, we're gonna put our hands up.
Put our hands up.
Yeah.
And left them search us.
Come on.
That's you right there.
This is your legal advocate.
She's here to look out for you.
There's Lew, as promised.
And Oscar, we just wanna talk to you, man.
This is a safe place for you to speak.
And the more you say, the better.
Kid, you just gotta tell the truth?
If you didn't do anything wrong,
you tell them that now.
I didn't mean to.
You didn't mean to what?
Shoot Malik.
He's my friend.
Okay.
Okay, so explain to us how that happened.
It was an accident.
We were fooling around.
Gun went off.
Oscar, where'd you get the gun in the first place?
We found a duffel bag at your house, too, filled with drugs.
Where'd you get that?
Oscar.
Oscar, it's real important where you got those things.
Real, real important.
Because that determines what happens next.
You understand that?
Tell us the truth.
It's mine.
It's all mine.
No, now, that ain't right.
Kid, you're not in the game.
You cannot lie in here.
You cannot lie to these people.
- Lew. - Oscar, are you lying?
How does a 12-year-old get that much heroin?
A gun?
It's easy to. They're mine.
Now, see... he just doesn't understand
why this even matters.
Oscar, you cannot lie.
I'm not lying. They're mine.
The hospital just called.
Malik didn't make it.
Look, if Oscar's saying he shot Malik,
even if it was an accident, that is reckless discharge.
Maybe even manslaughter.
But if Oscar takes credit for the gun and the drugs too...
That's a whole different deal.
I mean, second-degree murder.
Murder?
Are you... are you... Are you kidding me?
Lew, it's time to go. Let's go.
That kid was lying in there. That was clear as day.
There's no way in hell you all didn't feel that.
Now, you know he was lying.
Come on. Let's get up out of here.
No. No "come on."
Now, he's a good kid.
Now, you're not banking him for all this.
There's no way in hell you police are turning
- that kid into a murderer. - We heard enough.
- Let's get out of here. - I mean, really?
Come on. Stop playing.
Get your hands off me!
You need me, Kev?
- I'm his father. - Yeah?
And this is my police station.
We good. It's all good.
Listen to me.
You can be mad at me all you want,
but that is not the road that you wanna go down.
So that's really gonna be it?
You're just gonna let Oscar get sent away like that,
sent off on his own?
What that was up there is called accountability.
That's what it looks like.
What my sergeant is saying is, everything we got,
we gotta put it all on the table
so we can know what to do next, so we can know how to fix it,
so we can do our job.
Go home.
Thank you. Really.
But go home.
He's a poor kid. We saw his house.
Yet he's claiming ownership of a handgun
and 20k worth of heroin?
Math doesn't work.
- Kid's obviously lying. - Yeah, question is, why?
I mean, you offered to help him.
He's looking at big charges. You'd think he'd talk.
Maybe he's terrified of somebody.
Protecting somebody.
It's all possible, but none of it matters
unless we can prove it.
Look, we found the murder weapon
in Oscar's hand, the drugs under his bed.
He just gave a full confession.
It was Malik's blood on the gun
that we recovered from Oscar.
And the gun is a match to the slug we recovered
from Malik's body and the shell casing
that we found in the basement.
Okay.
Listen to me.
In 36 hours, we are gonna
have to charge Oscar on this evidence,
whether we believe him or not.
So we need to prove he's lying.
Who does that gun and who does that dope actually belong to?
Who is he protecting?
'Cause whoever that is,
that's who's legally and morally
responsible for Malik's death.
So let's not let two kids' lives
get destroyed today, okay?
Come on. Dig in.
Board of Ed said there's no sign of any link
between Oscar and narcotics.
They did tell me that Oscar is a good student.
He plays trombone in the orchestra,
treasurer of the comic book club.
Not exactly El Chapo.
There's, like, 14 little homies with gang ties
that live within a block of Oscar.
We have zero reason to believe he even knows them.
Hang on.
I just found Oscar's finsta.
- What the hell's a finsta? - It's an Instagram thing.
He doesn't have a computer. He must have done it at school.
Yeah, it's mostly kid stuff, but someone DMed him.
Looks like a dummy profile.
And they sent addresses and times.
Those are meet-up spots.
Yeah, for sure. They're on the West Side.
Here, I sent them all to you guys.
The Cortez Street address is a park.
Yeah, and Pulaski is just a greasy spoon.
Here we go. 2847 North Karlov.
That's a residence.
All right, single occupancy housing.
This place is tough.
CPD had 40 in-service calls to this location
this year alone, all drug-related.
That's probably the connection
to the dope that's in that duffel bag.
Somebody's selling heroin out of there.
Still doesn't explain why this kid's
got a pen pal, though.
Well, let's find out.
Cool. Crockett and Tubbs.
Help you?
We're investigating a homicide.
Didn't happen here.
We know it didn't happen here,
but there's a young boy by the name of Oscar Guzman
who's been communicating with somebody here.
We need to find out who knows him.
I don't talk to cops for two reasons.
One, my tenants like their privacy.
Two, you're cops.
Hey, you know what?
I've been looking at your rates here.
You want a room? See, that I can help you with.
I see you got a price per day.
Cheapest in the neighborhood.
Thing is, you can't do that in Chicago.
I mean, you can if you're a registered
licensed vacation rental.
Fire insurance, homeowner's hazard, commercial liability.
Violation is... What is that again?
Three grand.
Per offense, per tenant, per day.
What do you need?
Whatever we want.
You go back there, you finish your hoagie, call your mom,
I don't know. I don't care.
You stay out of our way.
But first, you tell me...
have you ever seen this child?
No.
Look again.
No. I swear.
Just go do whatever you gotta do.
Appreciate that. You've been most reasonable.
Take the second floor?
Less stairs for me. I accept.
Copy that.
Police!
Chicago PD!
Hey. What's happening, sir? I'm Chicago police.
I just wanted to talk to the res...
Ruz.
Male, six feet, black jacket, north stairwell.
Big dude coming in hot.
Chicago PD! Stop!
You all right?
I'm not gonna lie, I've been better.
I got you.
Damn.
Jeez.
The hell just happened, man?
How's your head?
My ego took the worst of it.
What are you gonna tell the guys?
I'm gonna tell them, you should see the other guy.
Which is fully untrue.
You guys ready?
- Go. - Do it.
Ready? Chicago PD!
Nobody home.
Carlos Zapataro.
Who the hell is that?
Carlos Zapataro is Oscar's father.
- Father? - Yeah.
How did this not pop before?
There was zero acknowledgement of paternity.
Zapataro, he's not even listed on the birth certificate.
Yeah, but Oscar's mom confirmed it.
They had a quick fling 12 years ago.
Guy's a small-time career criminal.
Drug dealer, not hooked into any faction,
in and out of prison in Indiana.
Oscar's had zero relationship with his dad.
The guy's been a ghost in the kid's life.
- Until now. - Right.
And I'm willing to bet that the bag of drugs
and the gun belong to that man.
All right, so let's prove it so we can clear this kid.
So I'm gonna tell you what I think happened,
and then I want you to stop me
as soon as I say anything wrong, okay?
Okay.
So your father moved from Indiana to Chicago,
and that's when y'all connected,
and I do believe that you just wanted what every son
wants with their father...
A relationship.
Then y'all started meeting up.
One day, I imagine you brought him over
to the basement of my building.
And you all could have just been grabbing things
out of the storage unit.
You could have been showing him
all those cool-ass spiders that are down there,
because I know that's kind of your thing.
And...
Your dad saw an opportunity.
I think he had an idea...
Let's make this whole basement a stash house.
That's where the bag of drugs and the gun came from.
And I think you tried to keep it a secret for as long
as you could, but you couldn't help yourself.
Malik is like your brother.
That's your best friend.
So you wanted him to come down there and have a look.
He wasn't supposed to touch it.
You didn't wanna disappoint your dad,
or want him to get mad.
So you tried to grab it back.
But what I do believe is that you were playing...
And it went off.
Tell me what I got wrong.
Oscar, look at me.
Malik didn't make it.
He fought like hell, but he did not make it.
Now, right now, I have to tell you
how the system works, Oscar.
And in this system...
When a child is killed like this,
somebody has to take the punishment.
And everybody involved has to take accountability.
You've already done that part.
You do not deserve the punishment.
That doesn't have to be you. Please don't let that be you.
So tell me the truth.
Who does the bag of drugs and the gun belong to?
I told you, it was all my stuff.
The gun, the drugs.
It wasn't anybody else's.
It's the dad.
Kid just doesn't wanna give him up.
He doesn't wanna disappoint him.
All right, what else do we have?
Nothing.
Zapataro's prints aren't on the bag or the dope.
His car came back clean.
There's no DNA samples in the basement,
and we can't place him there in PODs either.
Do we have any leads on where he might be running?
Nothing on his BOLOs, cams.
West Side CI say they haven't seen or heard a trace of him.
Okay, so broaden it.
The guy has no roots in Illinois.
He's gonna need help.
Hey, I got something.
Zapataro used his burner
to Zelle his landlord rent at that SRO.
That burner is pinging at a bar on Ashland right now.
We've got him on aggravated battery of police.
Let's go.
We still got a good ping, Sarge.
All right, copy that. Keep eyes.
Wait.
What...
What's going on?
We got a problem.
Sarge, the old blue car across the street from the bar
is my father's car. Lew's.
Why the hell would your father be in that bar?
I don't know, Sarge.
Okay, Kev.
Go get eyes. Confirm it.
Damn.
Yeah, Sarge, Lew and Zapataro are at the bar.
They're in there together.
Kev, does your father know Zapataro?
Not that I know of, Sarge, no.
Could they have crossed paths in prison?
No. Lew was in Illinois.
Zapataro was in Indiana.
Never in the same place.
All right, Kev, call Lew.
Get him out of there.
Hey. Can't talk.
Gonna have to call you back.
No, Lew. We're outside. You gotta come out.
Come out, Lew.
No, I can't do that right now.
Trust me. I'll call you back.
No, Lew. Trust me.
Bring your ass outside.
Lew.
Lew!
Bro, what the hell is he doing?
I have no idea.
Sarge, Lew's not talking.
He's not coming out.
All right, listen to me. We move real careful.
Kev, Kim, get in there.
Get Lew out.
The rest of us will surround.
We crash once we got Lew out and he's safe.
How long are you planning on staying?
Two weeks.
I'm gonna need more than two weeks.
I'm gonna need, I don't know... two weeks.
I'm gonna need at least, like, five.
I just need enough, you know, just to tide me over.
- What you looking at? - Nothing, man.
It's just bothering me, you know?
I was just... just trying to negotiate...
Let him go!
Stay calm. Stay calm. Go.
All hell's breaking loose.
Okay, we got the east side exit.
Going to the back of the bar. I'll hold down there.
Drop that knife. Let him go!
Get back, pig!
- Come on! - Get off of me, you...
- Let him go! - Okay. Okay.
- Come on. - Get back, pig!
Drop it. Let him go.
- Get back. - Drop that knife. Let him go.
Drop the weapon!
- Drop it! - Put your guns down.
I'm walking out of here, or he's dead.
Drop the knife! Drop the knife!
5021, got an offender in custody.
51 and Ashland.
One civilian injured.
Roll an ambo and some cars.
Copy, 5021.
Ambo and backup en route.
I got it.
- He needs real stitches. - Okay.
Let me talk to him for a second.
Okay.
I need you to make sense and talk fast at the same time.
What the hell were you doing in there?
You know, you made it real clear
you weren't gonna do a damn thing for Oscar.
So I did.
I talked to an old celly.
He told me Zapataro was looking for a place to lay low,
so I found him.
I told him I'd give him a place to hide
if he gave me some dope.
I mean, that's what you need, right?
To prove those drugs were his product?
A sample of dope would have done that.
When the hell were you gonna give me that plan, Lew?
We don't have any of that on the books.
You could have violated your parole,
and that could have been a lot worse.
Did you even get the dope?
No.
Because you stopped me.
So we got anything to prove those drugs
belong to Zapataro?
Anything at all?
And that gun?
Anything?
No, I didn't think so.
We both did real good for the kid.
You fought with police.
You held a knife to a man's throat.
I mean, you're gonna do time, no matter what happens.
So what do we have to talk about?
Your son, Oscar.
We don't want him doing time too.
What's that gotta do with me?
Everything.
He's your kid.
We know it was your gun that killed Malik Thompson.
We know it was your dope in that bag.
You just gotta tell us that's right, and Oscar goes home.
Nope. Wasn't mine.
- Don't do that. - It wasn't mine.
None of it.
Listen to me.
You're gonna do time regardless.
We're giving you a lay-up right now.
It ain't gonna cost you a damn thing
to just let your son go home and have a full life.
You think I'm admitting to new charges?
That is your boy. That's your son.
I know you think that means something to me.
It doesn't.
So let me get this straight.
You're gonna let your 12-year-old boy
do time for you? That's your decision?
I guess so.
So what have we got?
Nothing new.
We tried the state lab, DEA.
We can't tie the insignia on the dope or the cut
to any previous cases.
Weapon's a bust too. It's a street gun.
It's bought and sold a dozen times.
And no new hits on DNA.
Then we're at the bottom of the barrel.
Sarge.
We've still got one person that can hand us the truth.
Hey, I need a minute alone with Oscar.
I don't know about that.
You can stay right there in the observation room.
You'll have it all on video.
Come and stop me whenever you need to.
Please.
Time's up, Oscar.
Your dad's down the hall.
He's getting arrested,
and we're gonna have to arrest you, too,
unless you give us the truth about the bag
of drugs and the gun.
They were your dad's.
No. They were mine.
Oscar, I need you to see something, okay?
And I'm not showing you this to hurt you.
I just wanna save you from a life of juvie.
I wanna save you from a life of thinking
that that man deserves you.
It wasn't mine. None of it.
Listen to me.
You're gonna do time regardless.
We're giving you a lay-up right now.
It ain't gonna cost you a damn thing
to just let your son go home and have a full life.
You think I'm admitting to new charges?
That is your boy. That's your son.
I know you think that means something to me.
It doesn't.
So let me get this straight.
You're gonna let your 12-year-old boy
do time for you? That's your decision?
I guess so.
If I tell you the truth, will you stop it?
You're gonna send my dad away?
Yeah.
I have to.
Can I ask you one more thing?
Anything.
You think I could still visit him in jail?
Zapataro's in for life.
I got Oscar to talk.
He said he saw his dad selling over there in Fifth City.
We got some buyers to ID him in the lineup.
So we did good.
And Oscar?
ASA agrees... Oscar didn't mean to hurt anybody,
so he's at home with his mom and his sister.
Okay.
Look.
That move to buy dope off of Zapataro,
that was actually good.
I should have trusted you.
All these kids in the neighborhood,
they remind me of you.
What I missed.
That's why I've been trying to help them.
I don't know.
Do something right this time.
Well...
You gotta trust me too.
I told you we were gonna do right by that boy.
That's what we do.
That's what I do.
Yeah. I see that.
Thing is, that part of you...
That didn't come from me.
We don't know each other real well.
How much you know about radiators?
Mrs. Banks up there in 3F,
she got a knock in her radiator.
I wouldn't know where to start.
Gotta use the bleed valve.
Bleed valve? What's that?
When air gets stuck up in there,
it bumps up against the hot water.
That's the knock.
You gotta bleed it out, release that pressure.
Then you can start it up new again.
CREDITS