Detective Lennie Briscoe acknowledges he has 25 years on the job. The title card dates correspond to September 1992, so Lenny began his NYPD career around 1967.
Lieutenant Anita Van Buren states she has been on the NYPD for 12 years. The air date was November 1994. Since the title cards show Thursday September 10, this equates to the year 1992, so she began her NYPD career about 1980.
The single-bullet theory, often derided and discredited by referring to it as the magic-bullet theory, was introduced by the Warren Commission in its investigation of the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy to explain what happened to the bullet that struck Kennedy in the back and exited through his throat.
This episode appears to be based on two separate cases/incidents:
- The 1984 murder of Eleanor Bumpurs. Bumpurs was a mentally unwell 66-year old African American woman who was killed by the NYPD as they tried to evict her from her apartment. Bumpurs apparently held a knife and slashed at one of the officers, causing them to shoot her and sparking controversy.
- The 1985 Edmund Perry case. Perry was a 17-year old Harlem resident and a graduate from the prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy who was shot to death by undercover New York plainclothes police officer Lee Van Houten on June 12, 1985. Van Houten maintained that Perry--and another black youth, later identified as Edmund's brother Jonah--attempted to mug him and that he shot in self-defense. The case briefly generated a firestorm of protest in New York City when it was revealed that Perry was an honor student and was enrolled to attend Stanford on scholarship. However, witnesses backed up Van Houten's claim that Perry and Jonah had attempted to mug the officer, and the shooting was ruled as justified. Jonah was then arrested and charged as an accomplice to the mugging, but he was found not guilty at trial.