The ballistics lab technician says the shooter using the 9-mm was firing in a manner consistent with a fusillade. Fusillade is a technical term that describes a military unit firing a salvo of shots at once on command. As it applies to this case, fusillade can also mean a volley of shots fired in order to keep an enemy(s) pinned down and forced to stay behind cover--commonly known as suppressing fire or covering fire. Suppressive fire isn't intended to actually kill or harm an opponent: It is intended to make it more difficult for an opponent to shoot accurately at one or one's ally, especially while moving to a different position.
This episode appears to be based on two separate cases:
- The 1989 Glen Ridge High School rape case. In 1989, an intellectually disabled 17-year-old girl was raped with a broomstick and a baseball bat by members of the Glen Ridge High School football team in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. This event attracted nationwide attention, mainly due to the perception that the assailants had been given special treatment by the school and local authorities due to their status as local football stars.
- The 1991 Thomas Jefferson High School shooting in Brooklyn. In 1991, Darryl Sharpe, a ninth-grade student who was an innocent bystander, was shot to death in the school. Another youth was trying to help his brother in a fistfight, drew a gun, and opened fire in the crowded hallway. The three shots killed the 16-year-old student and critically wounded a teacher, Robert Anderson, who was approaching to intervene. At the time, education officials in New York called it "one of the school system's worst crimes" and noted that besides an accidental shooting in 1989, it was the first killing of a student in a school in more than a decade. The 14-year-old shooter, Jason Bentley, was sentenced to three to nine years in prison. Bentley was on parole for this homicide on June 22, 1997, when Luis Cabral Corcino was murdered in a robbery. Bentley was convicted of murder and was sentenced to 35 years to life.
- The Patrick Daly case and the related 1998 People v. Russell case.
Robert Clohessy has played four different roles over the course of the series:
- Episode 8.22 Damaged (1998) - Defense Attorney Painte.
- Episode 10.10 Loco Parentis (2000) - Robert Telford.
- Episode 15.20 Tombstone (2005) - Kenny Peluso.
- Episode 19.19 All New (2009) - Fire Chief.
Mark Lotito has played six different roles over the course of the series:
- Episode 3.20 Securitate (1993) - Bailey.
- Episode 4.4 Profile (1993) - Policeman #1.
- Episode 5.1 Second Opinion (1994) - Paramedic.
- Episode 6.18 Atonement (1996) - Nance.
- Episode 8.21 Bad Girl (1998) - Detective Mallory.
- Episode 8.22 Damaged (1998) - Detective Mallory.
- Episode 8.24 Monster (1998) - Detective Mallory.
- Episode 13.7 Open Season (2002) - Bartender.