Trust (11 Feb. 1992)

A teenager confesses to shooting a classmate, but claims it was an accident. Detectives also discover that he was responsible for a similar shooting two years earlier, but the records are sealed.

Director:

Daniel Sackheim

Writers:

Dick Wolf (creator), Rene Balcer (teleplay),

Stars:

Paul Sorvino, Chris Noth, Dann Florek

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Paul Sorvino	...	Sergeant Phil Cerreta
Chris Noth	...	Detective Mike Logan
Dann Florek	...	Captain Donald Cragen
Michael Moriarty	...	Executive A.D.A. Ben Stone
Richard Brooks	...	A.D.A. Paul Robinette
Steven Hill	...	D.A. Adam Schiff
Tom Mason	...	Ian Maser
Michael Constantine	...	Dan Barnett
Lizbeth MacKay	...	Pamela Maser
Carolyn McCormick	...	Dr. Elizabeth Olivet
Harley Cross	...	Jamie Maser
P.J. Barry	...	Range Owner
Christine Farrell	...	Forensics Tech Arlene Shrier
MacIntyre Dixon	...	Merrill
Ben Hammer	...	Judge Frank Markman

Storyline

Cerretta and Logan investigate the murder of a school boy who's found shot in the head in an abandoned factory. It soon leads them to a prep school student (Harley Cross), who's had a history with guns thanks in part to his father's upbringing.

---

Plot Keywords:

boy | murder | teenage boy | teenager | marksmanship | 

---

Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

---

Details

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 February 1992 (USA)

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Wolf Films, Universal TV

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

User Reviews

Childhood Games.

A fifteen-year-old boy is found shot through the forehead in the basement of an old building and the murder weapon is found among some junk nearby. Serreta and Logan trace it back to another young teen-aged boy living with his father in comfortable circumstances.

It's Dad's gun, and a big one. The kid claims he was playing chicken with his friend and the gun went off without his planning it. Dad used to take him to the range where the target pistol, a .22, needed to be cocked before it could fire. This one, a .357 magnum, doesn't need to be cocked.

The kid has a juvenile record but it's sealed. The detectives find the arresting officer who handled the case two years ago and discover that the crime was almost identical, including the kid's excuse that they were just playing a game. Furthermore, the manager at the firing range remembers the boy being taught to fire the .357.

It raises a couple of interesting points. One is that Good Old Dad should DEFINITELY have kept that pistol in a place where his son couldn't get at it -- especially after the first lethal shooting -- but nothing is made of this obvious fact.

Second, why would a boy of thirteen or fifteen ever WANT to shoot and kill another human being? Or -- let's state the question more generally -- why do humans so often find that the answer to conflict is violence, sometimes war, sometimes merely murder. What is it that prompts us to want war with others? Is there something in some subcortical center of our brains, tucked away in the reptilian brain, fueled by testosterone and enhanced by the media, that causes us to raise our pistols and pull the triggers? Actually, I minored in social psychology in graduate school and attended a seminar in aggression and here's the best answer available at that time: Nobody knows. Yet the impulse is there, on prominent display. At any given moment around the world, some tribe is hard at work killing members of some other tribe. It can't be ALL biological, of course, because we do have the Amish and the Quakers. And it can't be ALL the fault of the media either because Seattle and Vancouver, BC, watch the same TV programs but one city has eight times the homicide rate of the other. I do wish they'd hurry and find out what's up. The episode itself offers no answer. How could it?