For Warrick

"For Warrick"

"For Warrick" is the first episode in the ninth season of the American crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Plot

The episode begins with radio chatter stating about a Las Vegas Police Department officer shot in an alley way in Las Vegas. Night-Shift CSI Supervisor Gil Grissom rushes to the scene and finds Warrick Brown slouched over his car's wheel, severely wounded. Grissom pulls him from the car, and tries to keep him alive when Undersheriff Jeff McKeen runs up, saying what he heard. Warrick, in his dying moments, wants to identify his attacker to Grissom before he dies but is deterred by McKeen's brandishing of a gun out of view of the unsuspecting Grissom.

Nick Stokes and Catherine Willows show up and hold back tears upon seeing the body of their friend and colleague. Captain Jim Brass questions McKeen about what he heard and saw, who states he heard two shots on the street, and saw a man run away from Warrick's vehicle into a getaway car. McKeen identifies the license plate on the getaway as the same vehicle belonging to LVPD Officer Daniel Prichard, the mole in the department who killed Lou Gedda and framed Warrick for the mobster's death. This information leads the team to suspect Prichard behind the murder. When Grissom heads back to the CSI with Warrick to turn in his shirt, covered in Warrick's blood, for evidence, he finds Sara Sidle in his office, saying she flew back when she heard the news. Greg Sanders skips his flight to Los Angeles and returns to help.

Nick searches Warrick's car for evidence, where he finds knuckle prints on the passenger side window, indicating that someone from the outside knocked on the window of the car. Theorizing that Warrick would not roll down the window if his killer is Prichard and using McKeen's testimony, Grissom, Catherine, and Nick conduct an experiment, to see if it holds truth. When it is revealed there was loud music playing in the alley, which would muffle the gunshot during the time of the murder, the team suspects the Undersheriff fabricated his story. Meanwhile, Sara and Greg head to Warrick's apartment in preparation for his funeral arrangements, where Greg discovers papers detailing a custody battle for Warrick's son, which he never told the team about. Sara informs Grissom of this, who watches a video file, along with the papers, where Warrick testifies before a psychiatrist why he is suitable to become a father. In it, Warrick mentions how he never got to know his parents, and how he looks up to Grissom as a father figure.

Unfortunately, CSI Assistant Director Conrad Ecklie does not want the team to haphazardly accuse McKeen without further proof, thus Sara suggests taking fingerprints off the bullet casings of the murder weapon found inside Warrick's car. The results are a match to McKeen; he reacquired a supposedly destroyed handgun from a robbery case where Prichard was the officer, loaded the bullets into the gun and used it to kill Warrick, rather than his department-issued firearm. This is so McKeen is hoping his testimony leads back to Prichard, rather than himself. Alone with Brass, Grissom tells him Warrick's previous suspicion of a high-ranking mole in the LVPD holds truth and all evidence points to McKeen. Brass contacts the judge to get a warrant for the Undersheriff's arrest, but when he is not at his residence, Nick searches McKeen's phone records and traces a number back to a hotel.

The team busts into McKeen's hotel room but finds no one; however, evidence that the Undersheriff and Prichard were there and that the two are collaborating is left behind. Getting a fix on McKeen's cell phone, Nick and Brass pursue them as they attempt to escape into Mexico. When the signal suggests that McKeen's car has suddenly stopped, they find the car rolled over into a ravine, through a guard rail. Prichard is found dead, but a blood trail leads Nick to a wounded McKeen. Nick holds him at gunpoint and the Undersheriff reveals his guilt, and taunts Nick, who grows increasingly furious. McKeen demands that Nick shoot him and a shot is fired. Brass arrives and Nick tells him he missed. Brass then arrests McKeen for the murder of Warrick Brown.

At Warrick's funeral, Grissom delivers an emotional eulogy before Warrick's ex-wife Tina, the LVPD and the staff of CSI and tearfully declares that they will miss him.

External links

• "For Warrick" at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com episode
• Template:Csiguide episode
• "For Warrick" at CSI Files