The Closer s04e09 Episode Script
Tijuana Brass
(COUGHS) (FLIES BUZZING) Thr ough this anointing, may the Lord, in His love and mercy, help you with the grace of the Holy Spirit.
May the Lord, who frees you fr om sin, save you and raise you up.
Thr ough this anointing, may the Lord, in His love and mercy, help you with the grace of the Holy Spirit.
May the Lord, who frees you fr om sin, save you and raise you up.
(GASPS) (SIGHS) (DIALING) Yes, I d like to report two men shot to death lying in the back of a pickup truck under the Sixth Street bridge at Anderson.
- TAYLOR: Morning, Chief Johnson.
- So what s all this? Two Tijuana Police officers shot to death in this pickup.
Jacinto Gonzales, Carlos Gomez.
Is that why you called Priority Homicide, Commander? Dead foreign police officers can only be investigated by "the elite"? Had nothing to do with the article in the Times today referring to PHD as "elite," and you can tell, Flynn, because I'd never used the word "elite" to describe you.
- Okay, okay, okay.
- TAYLOR: Come.
We re gonna have to respond to that article in the Times, but everything Ramos wr ote was trash.
Well, Chief Pope seems to be taking it seriously.
He wants me in his office an hour ago.
Why is the cor oner s investigator just getting here now? Lots of dead people on Monday.
And if no one s touched the bodies, how do we know their IDs? Wallets, passports, badges were all laid out in plain view.
Also, in the driver s seat, guns.
This isn t the crime scene.
So, wait, somebody dr ove the bodies here? Where s this vehicle fr om? The vehicle is registered to a San Diego address.
The police down there say the owner, a Mr.
Raul Llamas, didn t even know the vehicle was stolen till they told him this morning.
So two Tijuana Police officers murdered elsewhere are driven underneath a bridge in Los Angeles and abandoned in a stolen pickup truck.
That s so strange.
Who found the bodies? The guy who called it in didn t identify himself, but the cell phone s registered to a Father Chris Donahue.
BREND A: Oh.
Great! What was Father Donahue doing in a place like this at 6:00 in the morning? I have no idea, but there s a Catholic church four blocks away.
- Our Lady of the Saints.
- D ANIELS: Uh Chief.
I think we got something here.
And it s seriously weird.
PROVENZA: Now we got a whole list of seriously weird stuff going.
(FLIES BUZZING) Just another drug murder in Los Angeles.
BREND A: You recognize these bracelets, Detective? It s related to the Ochoa cartel.
All their people wear them.
It means that our victims are pr obably dirty cops.
POLICE OFFICER: Both men dead about six to nine hours and showing multiple gunshot wounds fr om what looks like a.
45.
Okay, thank you.
Gentlemen.
Thank you so much.
Okay, Detective Sanchez, let s let the Tijuana Police know that they ve lost two of their officers.
Maybe they could tell us how they got here in the first place.
Lieutenant Flynn, let s get a dope dog to go over this truck.
See if anything floats its boat.
After which, Lieutenant Tao, if you could take it to the print shed? Thank you.
Sergeant Gabriel, I want shots-fired reports fr om LA County for last night.
I need a crime scene in the very worst way.
(BREND A CLEARS THROAT) Chief, look here.
Olive oil.
Detective Daniels, that priest that called this in, he didn t just find the bodies.
He also performed last rites.
I d like him in my office, please, posthaste.
POPE: Father Donahue doesn t have to talk to you if he doesn t want to.
And when you want to interact with the Catholic Church, you need to go thr ough a deputy chief.
I am a deputy chief.
Yeah, I mean, you know, a real, gr own-up deputy chief with management and administrative duties.
Like Dennis Murdoch, who is LAPD s liaison with the archdiocese.
Have you read the Times today? - This article by Ramos? - I glanced thr ough it, yes.
- Anything leap out at you? - He misspelled my middle name.
What about this? Here.
Here.
"Deputy Chief Brenda Lee Johnson confesses that, 90% of the time, "Priority Homicide Division is deployed by her superiors "in an attempt to anticipate media coverage.
" Did you actually say this? - Of course not! - You accused me of allowing - He took my words out of context.
the press to run this department! Wait a minute, Will.
Now, wait a minute.
The main point of this article is that PHD handles more white murder victims than Robbery /Homicide, and that has nothing to do with me.
That s how you assign cases.
In addition to which, having a reporter popping in and out of my division was your idea, not mine.
You want to know what else was my idea? You! You were my idea.
Priority Homicide was my idea.
And so imagine how much fun it s been explaining your comments to angry members of the police commission, all of whom are now demanding that I dismantle your division.
Do you understand what that means? (KNOCKING AT DOOR) - Yes.
Yes, of course - Come in.
We need I need to explain things better to No, no.
No.
No.
I admit we need to talk to this asshole, Ramos, because there's a big "Part 1," under the headline of this article, and we don t want part 2, which comes out next week, to end as badly.
But the time for simple explanations has come and gone.
LAPD needs to get ahead of this story, Chief Johnson.
Priority Homicide has established the efficacy of team investigation.
We need to apply that lesson to the rest of our force structure.
And, translated, that means what, exactly? Priority Homicide has run its course.
It s over.
It s done.
I m shutting it down.
What? (SIGHS) Because of this story? Really? (STUTTERING) What s gonna happen to my detectives? And when? When? You want to know when? Now! Today! By the time Ramos gets here this evening, the Commander and I will have reconfigured LAPD s various homicide units in such a way that they will withstand both criticism fr om the police commission as well as any further media scrutiny.
You will retain your rank and salary, but you will no longer be in charge of anything called Priority Homicide.
And for now, that s it.
You re dismissed.
Chief Murdoch spoke with the archdiocese.
They say Father Donahue will call us when he has a minute.
Okay.
Um Well, we got a minute.
(CHUCKLES) Um What do we know about him, Father Donahue? Well, he has a small church in one of the poorer sections of the city.
Our Lady of the Saints.
Runs it alone, and he s been questioned several times by Immigration officials.
They believe he pr ovides sanctuary for illegals.
Um Sanchez, we hear fr om Tijuana? They re sending some comandante to do their own investigation, but our victims here, Jacinto Gonzales and Carlos Gomez, had no official business here in Los Angeles.
BREND A: But they had weapons.
Lieutenant Flynn, what did our dope dog think? Oh.
He was unimpressed, but there was some dried blood behind the seats in the truck s cab.
SID s still working on matching it up and isolating fingerprints.
And we may have something here, Chief, an unresolved shots-fired report.
Last night at ar ound 3:00 a.
m.
, Central Division responds to an anonymous call reporting a gunfight just east of the train station.
Our guys dr ove thr ough the area, stopped and talked to security guards, didn t find anything.
But all of them admit to hearing something, except for the night watchman at Manta Chemical Company, a Mateo Hernandez.
PROVENZA: Yeah, I put a want on him while you were in with Pope.
Now, as it turns out, the address on his driver s license doesn t exist.
Also, Mateo s 40, and it says he s supposedly born here in LA, but his social security number is only two months old.
- What about vehicle registration? - GABRIEL: He has a car.
He left it at work last night.
Hasn t come back for it.
But we do have two undercovers watching it right now.
So Mateo Hernandez is either a deaf illegal immigrant or his jobsite is our crime scene.
Let s head over to Manta Chemical and have a look-see.
Good.
BREND A: Oh.
And Excellent work, everybody.
As always.
Really.
Always really excellent work.
FRITZ: Hey, excuse me for interrupting, but DOJ says you guys made an inquiry on Mateo Hernandez.
Are you saying that the FBI has a flag on Mateo? - Why? Where is he? - We can t find him just this second.
But this want is a bad thing.
I m not authorized to tell you anything about Mateo, except he s helped us r oll up the American side of some major drug trafficking, and he is a seriously good guy.
Well, you should come with me, then.
Cause I don t want to cause you any more pr oblems at work, but your "seriously good guy" just became my chief suspect in a double homicide.
GOODING: And I should say that all of Mateo s paperwork was in order.
We filed it with the government.
That s all right, Mr.
Gooding.
We re not fr om Immigration.
And he was a real self-starter, too.
Not just sitting ar ound at night.
He burglar-pr oofed the windows.
He fixed our alarms.
He even double-bolted the loading door at the end of business every day.
And this shelving Well, when I left work last night, this was all in r ows in the center of the r oom.
I guess Mateo must have moved it up against the walls.
Oh.
And this is his desk right over here.
- Brenda.
- Hmm.
(FRITZ SIGHS) Look, I didn t know him personally, but fr om what I was told, Mateo was just not the kind of guy who would cause the sort of pr oblem you found this morning.
- I disagree.
- Why is that? Because there s two casings right here between the shelves.
TAO: From a.
45.
For those in the know, nothing better in the handgun biz.
Chief.
Wasn t something like this used to tape down the tarp on the truck? - Yes.
- SANCHEZ: Chief.
Look what I found.
The water in this bucket has blood in it.
Looks like he tried to mop the blood up off the floor.
FLYNN: Yeah, but why not wipe the walls down, too? Why just put shelves in fr ont of it? Maybe he ran out of time.
BREND A: The lock on this door has been taken apart fr om the inside.
Mr.
Gooding, when did that happen? It wasn t like that when I left yesterday.
So the bodies were already here when the squad car pulled up to check on the shots-fired report.
Mateo actually went outside and spoke to the responding officers, tells them he doesn t hear a gunfight while the victims are lying here on the floor? When the police left, Mateo was afraid that they might come back, so he stopped cleaning up, he pushed the shelves up against the wall, he dragged his victims out into the stolen truck and drives them four blocks from his church.
All right.
This business about not talking to the priest is getting ridiculous.
Father Donahue has had his minute.
Chief! Look, just hold on a second.
We can ask Father Donahue to come visit us.
I mean, but walking into his church and demanding to see him? - That would raise holy hell right now.
- I don t think it matters anymore what kind of hell we raise, honestly.
Okay, okay, Chief.
We all read the article in the Times this morning.
We understand.
It s not good.
So now is not the best time to pick a battle with the Catholic Church.
Let s fight one Pope at a time.
The FBI s getting ready to fax over some declassified stuff - on Mateo to your murder r oom.
- PROVENZA: See? We got plenty to do.
What s going on? Is Pope really giving you grief about this article? I thought it had more to do with his pr oblems - I can t talk about this right now.
Really.
- TAO: Chief, eight sets of prints inside the pickup.
Two match our victims, one goes with the prints we found on the car Mateo left at work, and five still unknown.
Thank you, Lieutenant.
You want to summarize this for everybody? Sure.
All right, guys, Manuel Rivera, a.
k.
a.
Mateo Hernandez, used to be a Tijuana comandante.
He refused to back off as the Ochoa cartel, when they moved in, started buying up the local police.
Great.
Now the cartels are coming up here to shoot it out.
No, not Mateo.
A year ago, he abandons Mexico, he drives up to Los Angeles with enough evidence to dismantle half the Ochoa cartel s American distribution system.
I think your two vics here were sent by the cartel to kill him.
Okay, how did Gonzales and Gomez know where to find your informant if the FBI gave Manuel this new identity, Mateo? Well, Mateo s 18-year-old nephew came to visit last week.
Two days after he goes back to Mexico, he s murdered.
And Mateo said the cartel went after his nephew to find out where we had put him.
Mateo s FBI case officer talked to Mexican Federales.
They said the kid was collateral damage in a random gunfight between gangs.
- What was his name, Mateo s nephew? - Ramon Camacho.
Why? Well, Mexico posts all its morgue photos online, and I use it sometimes to locate missing gang members on their database.
- There he is, Ramon Camacho.
- FRITZ: Are you kidding me? Cause of death, blunt-force trauma.
He was beaten, not shot.
Pr obably tortured for information.
And the investigating officers, Jacinto Gonzales and Carlos Gomez.
- TAO: Our victims.
- Great.
That s one way to get away with murder, investigate it yourself.
So they grab the kid and find out where the uncle is, they beat him until he talks, and then they kill him.
FLYNN: And Manuel, a.
k.
a.
Mateo, hears about this and realizes that they re coming for him.
So Gonzales and Gomez sneak up on him somehow at work.
Even have the tape out to put it over his mouth, same as they did his nephew.
Yeah, but Mateo fought back.
I mean, self-defense.
Or maybe since he knew his identity had been compr omised, he knew someone was coming, so he was prepared.
He limited access to only one entrance door, so he knew exactly where Gomez and Gonzales would enter, - almost lying in wait for them.
- Is there anything we can do to help? Well, that depends.
Am I finding Mateo so the FBI can swoop down and take him away fr om me? Not if he committed murder, no.
Lieutenant Tao, that dried blood on the back of the pickup s cab, I keep bumping on it for some reason.
Would you have SID determine if it matches up to any of our victims, please? Thank you.
TAYLOR: Chief Johnson.
- Yes, Commander? - Deputy Chief Johnson, this is Comandante Martin Vasquez fr om the Internal Affairs Division of the Tijuana Police.
He s here to see about your victims.
Thank you for coming, Comandante.
Let me fill you in on what I know so far.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) - Chief.
- Yes? Listen, I know how things sounded this morning, but trust me.
I m working all this out.
Yeah.
I can tell.
Chief, did it ever occur to you that it may not be Priority Homicide the police commission has a pr oblem with? Excuse me, Commander? Chief Pope is in charge of our race relations here, and it s blowing up in his face.
So maybe instead of getting all pissed off at me, maybe you should check out how long an assistant chief usually lasts at the LAPD.
I thought you d want to help me keep our friend fr om an early retirement.
By giving up my division? Why am I supposed to be the fall guy here? (BREND A SIGHS) You know what, Commander? I don t want to talk about this with you now.
Pardon me.
Excuse me.
VASQUEZ: This man you call Mateo, I knew as Manuel Rivera.
How well did you know Manuel Rivera? We worked together.
I trusted him.
Do you have any reason to believe that the officers he shot were corrupt? The operating rule in Tijuana right now is, "Trust no one.
" I know the feeling.
And yet you stay.
To succeed, corruption depends on decent people either giving in or giving up.
And I don t like giving up.
Now, Manuel, he was my friend, but he abandoned his country, he has a new name.
After changing so much, who can say what he is like today? I would like to think this is self-defense on Manuel s part, but it would be great to hear someone say that out loud.
Is it possible to get a report fr om your morgue? Okay, squat down a little.
(CLEARS THROAT) Down a little more.
And, Chief Johnson, if you II just stand there.
Um Okay.
Now, Sergeant Gabriel, if you II just grab me fr om behind.
- Really? - Ar ound the neck.
Not too tight.
Okay, Chief Johnson, walk towards me.
And bang, bang, bang, bang! He shoots Gonzales.
Bang! He blasts away Gomez s elbow.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang! (EX CLAIMS) Oh, my God.
What is on that sponge? Just water.
Oh.
You know what? I m not sure.
Here s an antibacterial wipe.
You II be fine.
Pr obably.
You know what? Take two.
So, our victims were killed while attacking someone else? The angle of his entry wounds indicate the gun was pr obably fired over the shoulder and at extremely close range.
The other guy, just a few feet away fr om the weapon.
(VASQUEZ SIGHS) VASQUEZ: Gonzales has four kids.
What am I gonna tell his wife? I should call her, I suppose.
Now, I understand that you still need to find Manuel and get his side of the story, but the doctor s explanation seems to fit the theory of self-defense, yes? But if Manuel was just pr otecting himself, why didn t he call the police and report what happened or alert the FBI? But he did alert the FBI.
According to you, he told them last week what he thought might happen, and they did nothing.
And if you re fr om Tijuana and you know how much money these cartels have to thr ow ar ound, you think to yourself, "Hey, maybe someone from the FBI is giving me up.
" That s being a little paranoid, don t you think? VASQUEZ: Manuel took on the cartels.
Paranoia is how you stay alive.
Myself, as well.
I must keep my schedule secret.
I sleep in a different place every night.
Someone s house or an apartment or a church.
- I put bullet pr oof glass in my office - I m sorry.
- Did you say you sleep in churches? - Well, even the cartels are a little afraid of God.
Chief.
We are not going to that church.
Lieutenant Pr ovenza said Father Donahue s minute has turned into hours.
Excuse me, Comandante, are you up for a little confession? Are you sure you wouldn t like to accompany me, Comandante? If Manuel really has sought sanctuary here, seeing a Tijuana Police officer may not be the best way to convince him to come out.
All right, then.
Wish me luck.
- Chief.
- Yes? I just want to say again, for the record, that without the permission of the archdiocese, this is a very bad idea.
Churches are like foreign embassies.
We can t just go storm into them Thank you so much for the warning, Sergeant.
Now, if y all excuse me, I II be back just as soon as I can.
(DOORBELL RINGS) Oh.
Sorry.
- Father Donahue? - Yes? I m Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson of the LAPD.
The archdiocese said I could pop on by and ask a few questions.
- Do you mind? - Oh.
Uh.
Well (CLEARS THROAT) - Okay.
- Thank you.
Who did you speak to at the archdiocese? Um I couldn't pronounce his last name, so I just kept calling him "Father.
" I m sorry.
Were you eating dinner with someone? He was called away.
I was told that you were the only priest here.
I am.
Have a seat.
Can I get you anything? Thank you.
A glass of water would be nice.
Do you watch a lot of Spanish television? (CHUCKLES) Oh.
My congregation s mostly Latino, so These pr ograms impr ove my language skills.
- I see.
- What can I do for you? Well, first, I just want to thank you so much for calling in the murders this morning.
You re welcome.
- Thank you.
- Sure.
And I was just wondering, the street where you found the bodies is several blocks away fr om here.
And unless you make a habit of removing tarps fr om the backs of stolen pickups, it seems to me you went out looking for the victims.
Which is why you br ought the oil for last rites.
You did perform last rites on them, didn t you? - Why is that important to you? - Because you interfered with my physical evidence, and it s my responsibility to find out how these men lost their lives.
And I take that very seriously.
And it s my responsibility to make sure they don t lose their souls, as well.
And I take that very seriously.
How did you know about the bodies in the first place? I m sorry.
I can t share that information with you.
Because it came to you under the seal of confession? - That s right.
- Was the person who shared this with you a man or a woman? Yes.
This isn t a guessing game.
All right, then, Father.
Let s have a theological discussion.
Because you found out about those bodies in confession, doesn t that mean a sin was involved? Are you familiar with how confession works? I d say so, yes.
And I wouldn t think that killing someone in self-defense is a sin.
The commandment reads, "Thou shalt not kill.
" It s pretty unambiguous.
Now, whether those deaths were murder or self-defense, I m not qualified to say.
I help the penitent find forgiveness fr om God, not fr om the state.
Did you help a man named Manuel Rivera, also known as Mateo Hernandez? He attends church services here.
I know it because I found this on his desk.
Now, you re known as a sanctuary church.
Immigration has been here several times, and they And been turned away, yes.
God doesn t recognize national borders.
I, however, am very good at recognizing my parishioners, and you re not one of them.
I II tell the archdiocese that we spoke.
- Look, Father, I need your help.
- I II be happy to pray for you Manuel or Mateo or whatever name you know him by, he came to see you.
I know it.
The FBI knows it, the Tijuana Police know it, and that means, sooner or later, the Ochoa drug cartel will know it.
And this is what happened to the last person who knew where Mateo was and tried to keep it a secret.
Right.
Okay.
What would you do with Manuel if you found him? I would hold him on homicide charges until I checked out his story.
I celebrate mass three days a week at the county jail, and I take confession fr om the Border Br others and the Sinaloan Cowboys and members of every Latino street gang in Los Angeles.
All of whom, in one way or another, are connected to dope, which means the Ochoa cartel.
They re waiting for you to arrest somebody named Manuel Rivera or Mateo Hernandez.
They ve been told a former Tijuana comandante of that name is gonna show up, and whoever kills him earns an instant $50,000 for his family.
Ms.
Johnson, Manuel has a price on his head.
He s not gonna last an hour in the county jail.
Well, I m certain that we could find a safe place to hold him.
Fortunately, that s not your pr oblem.
Is it politically incorrect to suggest that this is a Mexican stand-off? Look, if you re really serious about pr otecting Manuel, I always believe actions are more powerful than words.
So the day that a negative fr ont-page article appears in the Times about Priority Homicide, - you seal off a Catholic church.
- We re not on their pr operty.
Chief, we could have undercovers out here stopping anybody fr om coming out.
But they wouldn t have stopped people fr om going in.
Pardon me.
Excuse me, Chief Johnson, but, personally, I don t believe Manuel would ever come out of this church - with it surr ounded like this.
- There s a bit of a negotiation going on, Comandante.
I II admit that.
But we II get thr ough it.
Pardon me.
(SIGHING) Prints on this, I hope.
Let s see if they match Mateo s.
Okay, and I think I know why you were bumping on the blood in the back of the pickup.
Because, first of all, it was several days old.
But the San Diego police spoke to the owner of that truck, and he said it just went missing this morning.
I m thinking that s not entirely true, because the blood is AB negative.
Very rare.
It doesn t type out with either of our victims.
But I spoke to the Mexican morgue, and Manuel Rivera s nephew, AB negative.
Thank you.
Sergeant Gabriel, I want the license, registration, and insurance on that stolen pickup - as soon as possible.
Thank you.
- Okay.
I really think what we have here is a gigantic misunderstanding revolving around the word "priority" and how it's applied.
Come on in, Chief Johnson.
- Hello, Ricardo.
- Hope you re not angry with me, Chief.
- I did call your team "elite.
" - TAYLOR: But, you see, - that s part of the misunderstanding.
- POPE: Right, exactly.
Exactly what I was about to say.
You think that the word "priority" means we re assigning greater value to victims who are white and/ or rich, and we were never doing that, were we, Chief Johnson? - No.
- POPE: And as a matter of fact, you ve sort of jumped the gun on us a little bit, because we re already under way with a major departmental reorganization, and the first thing we are dr opping is Priority Homicide because of the misinterpretation of the name.
Okay, let me stop you right there.
First of all, I didn t misinterpret anything.
The racial statistics speak for themselves, and Chief Johnson told - I can address that.
- Still talking.
Still talking.
And Chief Johnson told me herself that you deploy her division, which includes, what, three lieutenants, in anticipation of newsworthy crimes? Which means in addition to race, you re allowing the media to determine your agenda.
No.
No, no, no.
That was never the case.
And Chief Johnson was mistaken when she suggested that, and I m sure she d like to tell you so.
I would.
I was irritated at the time and I spoke without thinking.
We called the division "Priority Homicide" because we were experimenting with the concept of team investigation.
And this experiment, which has been completely successful, by the way, was the main focus in our homicide cases.
Hence, the word "priority.
" And we used our best people because we felt, given that the concept was fairly new, innovative Right.
Cutting-edge, really.
It wasn t something we wanted to explore with less-experienced detectives.
And these were very tough cases, featuring suspects with greater resources, who, as we find in the greater population, often turn out to be white.
Anyway, Priority Homicide is now a thing of the past.
As of tomorr ow, actually, Deputy Chief Johnson will be heading a new division called "Major Crimes," which will incorporate homicide units fr om acr oss the city.
Major Crimes.
The D A s office has a department with the same designation.
Well, if I can say that you sped up this reorganization in response to part 1 of my article, this definitely changes the nature of what I m writing in part 2.
Oh.
Well, you certainly deserve to take credit for this, - don t you think, Chief Pope? - Absolutely.
In fact, if you d like to come by tomorr ow, we can - show you what we re up to.
- And this isn t just some cosmetic shake-up, right? There s actually gonna be - some change involved? - Oh, no, no.
It s going to be huge.
Major Crimes puts my division in charge not only of homicide, but also the larger fraud cases.
And kidnappings and rapes.
- Rape and kidnapping.
- Well, yes.
Those are major crimes, aren t they? I mean, does anyone think that rape isn t a major crime? Oh.
And Commander Taylor will be reporting directly to me, coordinating my interaction with the other divisions.
Of course, my elite team of detectives will stay entirely intact.
- It s gonna be great! - Mmm-hmm.
- Yeah.
- This is exclusively mine? You re the first to hear it.
Now, if you gentlemen will excuse me, I have a murder to wrap up.
Pardon me.
You see, and I Stupid me.
I thought you guys were gonna be, like, all mad and stuff.
(CHUCKLES) All right, well, what time should I be here tomorr ow? - Uh Whatever time works for you.
- Yeah.
Yeah, we re here.
(CHUCKLES) Actually, she s here.
I m gonna call you back.
Chief! You ready for this? License and registration on the pickup truck.
TAO: Chief! The prints on the fork you gave me, Mateo s, a.
k.
a.
Manuel Rivera.
Okay, so we know he s in the church.
No one fr om Central moves fr om there until I give the word.
Thank you.
Lieutenant Tao, there is one last set of prints I want you to pick up for me, and if you could match them to one of the unidentified pair we found on the not-so-stolen pickup, I would be eternally grateful.
Okay.
And fr om where would I be lifting these prints fr om, exactly? Chief, I pulled up the D VD Agent Howard br ought in.
Plus, we have stills.
Everything coming over the Mexican border synced up to license plates.
So we went thr ough them manually, and we started an hour before the time stamp on our victims passports.
All right, let me go over this quickly before I interview the suspect.
- Manuel s turning himself in? - No, no, but I ve pr oven that he s in the church, and I ve surr ounded it with police officers, so I m pretty sure he s safe.
BUZZ: And here s our victims, Chief.
But I thought this truck was stolen last night.
No.
That s just what you told the San Diego police this morning when you realized that your plan to kill Manuel had gone terribly wr ong.
Let s keep this r olling for a moment.
I think we re in for another surprise.
Comandante, may I have your passport, please? Gentlemen, may I have your help? This is outrageous! You have no right to treat me this way! - I am assisting you! - And what better way to get away with murder than to investigate it yourself? Murder? You cannot charge me with murder.
But we can for illegal possession of a passport, because you re definitely not two people, and yet you have two official IDs.
And there s a time stamp on this one.
- Oh, my God.
- PROVENZA: Well, what a coincidence.
There you are cr ossing the border right behind Gomez and Gonzales.
GABRIEL: And what passport did you use? Did you use Martin Vasquez or Raul Llamas? You know, the name the truck s registered under? Obviously, you spend the money the cartel pays you - living your other life in San Diego.
- No.
No.
- The truck is not mine.
- Sir, we just matched your prints off the pictures of the victims that you handled in my office to a previously unidentified pair that we found in the pickup.
We also found a rare type of blood in the pickup s cab, which matches that of Manuel Rivera s nephew.
Now, we have some hard decisions to make.
And I need your help.
Or things are gonna go very badly for you, sir.
Very badly.
You have no idea how things are in Tijuana right now.
Is this how you explain things to people who don t understand? How many people do you explain it to the way you explained it to that boy? The boy was killed in Mexico.
- It s not your concern.
- How do you know he was killed in Mexico? Doesn t say so on the photograph! (VASQUEZ SCOFFS) Look.
Let s be reasonable here.
You don t want to hold me on this silly passport issue.
I d be out of your jail in hours.
But Manuel Rivera wouldn t have been out in hours, would he? You knew that if Manuel successfully defended himself against Gomez and Gonzales that I would be forced to leave him in the county jail while I investigated his story, where you put a bounty on his head so one of his fellow prisoners would kill him! Manuel put a bounty on his own head when he chose to fight the cartels.
He will be a target the rest of his life.
Pr ove I did that, put a bounty on his head.
Prove it.
You can t even pr ove that I sent Gomez and Gonzales - to kill him in the first place.
- But if I could pr ove that, you d be responsible for their deaths.
And we could arrest you on two counts of felony murder.
Now, I m gonna read you your rights and give you the opportunity to confess your crimes.
Don t waste your time.
I have nothing to say.
We II see about that.
Oh, no.
Two passports.
I don t know which name to arrest you under.
That complicates things.
It doesn t matter which name.
All right, then.
I II send you to the county jail this way Mateo Hernandez, a.
k.
a.
Manuel Rivera, you are under arrest for the murder of - Jacinto Gonzales and Carlos Gomez! - What? SANCHEZ: You have the right to remain silent.
- You know that s not my name! - SANCHEZ: Anything you say can What difference does it make? You said it didn t matter.
SANCHEZ: If you can t afford one, one will be appointed for you by the state.
Have you heard and understood these rights? - You cannot arrest me as Manuel! - I can, and I have.
This is murder! If it is, then you planned it yourself.
And you can stop it.
Did you send Gomez and Gonzales acr oss the border to kill Manuel Rivera? Did you offer $50,000 to the person who could kill him? No! You! You must arrest me as Martin Vasquez! I m so sorry, sir.
I m changing your name to pr otect the innocent.
(SCOFFS) (SHOUTING) Let her go! Let her go, you son of a bitch! I will kill you! You will die for this, all of you! You will all die for this, all of you! All of you! You will all die for this! - Son of a bitch! - You will all die for this! Die for what, Comandante? What s there to be afraid of, Comandante? Huh? If you re really innocent, you II be out of jail in no time.
Wait! Wait! I have I have access to I can make you all rich, all of you! - Hey, Vasquez! - VASQUEZ: Wait! If you see Gonzales and Gomez, tell them we all said hi.
(CHURCH BELL RINGING) (KNOCKING ON DOOR) Hey, this place is kind of beautiful.
Don t start.
Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.
How long has it been since your last confession? Well, I almost got one last night, but the suspect, Manuel Rivera, a.
k.
a.
Mateo Hernandez, was killed in the county jail.
- You say Manuel is dead? - Officially, yes.
And it s been reported in the press.
That s why I removed the police fr om ar ound your church.
You re safe now.
And so is your friend.
And what will become of the man I know as Manuel Rivera? Well, I have an FBI agent here, if Manuel wants to be supplied with a new identity.
But you re an expert in immigration.
And if there s one thing our government has successfully pr oven that it can t do at all, it s find illegal aliens.
(SIGHS) I II keep you in my prayers.
I II take that in the spirit it was given, Father.
(BREND A SIGHS) Manuel? Good luck to you, sir.
Bless you, señora.
I will need it.
English - SDH
May the Lord, who frees you fr om sin, save you and raise you up.
Thr ough this anointing, may the Lord, in His love and mercy, help you with the grace of the Holy Spirit.
May the Lord, who frees you fr om sin, save you and raise you up.
(GASPS) (SIGHS) (DIALING) Yes, I d like to report two men shot to death lying in the back of a pickup truck under the Sixth Street bridge at Anderson.
- TAYLOR: Morning, Chief Johnson.
- So what s all this? Two Tijuana Police officers shot to death in this pickup.
Jacinto Gonzales, Carlos Gomez.
Is that why you called Priority Homicide, Commander? Dead foreign police officers can only be investigated by "the elite"? Had nothing to do with the article in the Times today referring to PHD as "elite," and you can tell, Flynn, because I'd never used the word "elite" to describe you.
- Okay, okay, okay.
- TAYLOR: Come.
We re gonna have to respond to that article in the Times, but everything Ramos wr ote was trash.
Well, Chief Pope seems to be taking it seriously.
He wants me in his office an hour ago.
Why is the cor oner s investigator just getting here now? Lots of dead people on Monday.
And if no one s touched the bodies, how do we know their IDs? Wallets, passports, badges were all laid out in plain view.
Also, in the driver s seat, guns.
This isn t the crime scene.
So, wait, somebody dr ove the bodies here? Where s this vehicle fr om? The vehicle is registered to a San Diego address.
The police down there say the owner, a Mr.
Raul Llamas, didn t even know the vehicle was stolen till they told him this morning.
So two Tijuana Police officers murdered elsewhere are driven underneath a bridge in Los Angeles and abandoned in a stolen pickup truck.
That s so strange.
Who found the bodies? The guy who called it in didn t identify himself, but the cell phone s registered to a Father Chris Donahue.
BREND A: Oh.
Great! What was Father Donahue doing in a place like this at 6:00 in the morning? I have no idea, but there s a Catholic church four blocks away.
- Our Lady of the Saints.
- D ANIELS: Uh Chief.
I think we got something here.
And it s seriously weird.
PROVENZA: Now we got a whole list of seriously weird stuff going.
(FLIES BUZZING) Just another drug murder in Los Angeles.
BREND A: You recognize these bracelets, Detective? It s related to the Ochoa cartel.
All their people wear them.
It means that our victims are pr obably dirty cops.
POLICE OFFICER: Both men dead about six to nine hours and showing multiple gunshot wounds fr om what looks like a.
45.
Okay, thank you.
Gentlemen.
Thank you so much.
Okay, Detective Sanchez, let s let the Tijuana Police know that they ve lost two of their officers.
Maybe they could tell us how they got here in the first place.
Lieutenant Flynn, let s get a dope dog to go over this truck.
See if anything floats its boat.
After which, Lieutenant Tao, if you could take it to the print shed? Thank you.
Sergeant Gabriel, I want shots-fired reports fr om LA County for last night.
I need a crime scene in the very worst way.
(BREND A CLEARS THROAT) Chief, look here.
Olive oil.
Detective Daniels, that priest that called this in, he didn t just find the bodies.
He also performed last rites.
I d like him in my office, please, posthaste.
POPE: Father Donahue doesn t have to talk to you if he doesn t want to.
And when you want to interact with the Catholic Church, you need to go thr ough a deputy chief.
I am a deputy chief.
Yeah, I mean, you know, a real, gr own-up deputy chief with management and administrative duties.
Like Dennis Murdoch, who is LAPD s liaison with the archdiocese.
Have you read the Times today? - This article by Ramos? - I glanced thr ough it, yes.
- Anything leap out at you? - He misspelled my middle name.
What about this? Here.
Here.
"Deputy Chief Brenda Lee Johnson confesses that, 90% of the time, "Priority Homicide Division is deployed by her superiors "in an attempt to anticipate media coverage.
" Did you actually say this? - Of course not! - You accused me of allowing - He took my words out of context.
the press to run this department! Wait a minute, Will.
Now, wait a minute.
The main point of this article is that PHD handles more white murder victims than Robbery /Homicide, and that has nothing to do with me.
That s how you assign cases.
In addition to which, having a reporter popping in and out of my division was your idea, not mine.
You want to know what else was my idea? You! You were my idea.
Priority Homicide was my idea.
And so imagine how much fun it s been explaining your comments to angry members of the police commission, all of whom are now demanding that I dismantle your division.
Do you understand what that means? (KNOCKING AT DOOR) - Yes.
Yes, of course - Come in.
We need I need to explain things better to No, no.
No.
No.
I admit we need to talk to this asshole, Ramos, because there's a big "Part 1," under the headline of this article, and we don t want part 2, which comes out next week, to end as badly.
But the time for simple explanations has come and gone.
LAPD needs to get ahead of this story, Chief Johnson.
Priority Homicide has established the efficacy of team investigation.
We need to apply that lesson to the rest of our force structure.
And, translated, that means what, exactly? Priority Homicide has run its course.
It s over.
It s done.
I m shutting it down.
What? (SIGHS) Because of this story? Really? (STUTTERING) What s gonna happen to my detectives? And when? When? You want to know when? Now! Today! By the time Ramos gets here this evening, the Commander and I will have reconfigured LAPD s various homicide units in such a way that they will withstand both criticism fr om the police commission as well as any further media scrutiny.
You will retain your rank and salary, but you will no longer be in charge of anything called Priority Homicide.
And for now, that s it.
You re dismissed.
Chief Murdoch spoke with the archdiocese.
They say Father Donahue will call us when he has a minute.
Okay.
Um Well, we got a minute.
(CHUCKLES) Um What do we know about him, Father Donahue? Well, he has a small church in one of the poorer sections of the city.
Our Lady of the Saints.
Runs it alone, and he s been questioned several times by Immigration officials.
They believe he pr ovides sanctuary for illegals.
Um Sanchez, we hear fr om Tijuana? They re sending some comandante to do their own investigation, but our victims here, Jacinto Gonzales and Carlos Gomez, had no official business here in Los Angeles.
BREND A: But they had weapons.
Lieutenant Flynn, what did our dope dog think? Oh.
He was unimpressed, but there was some dried blood behind the seats in the truck s cab.
SID s still working on matching it up and isolating fingerprints.
And we may have something here, Chief, an unresolved shots-fired report.
Last night at ar ound 3:00 a.
m.
, Central Division responds to an anonymous call reporting a gunfight just east of the train station.
Our guys dr ove thr ough the area, stopped and talked to security guards, didn t find anything.
But all of them admit to hearing something, except for the night watchman at Manta Chemical Company, a Mateo Hernandez.
PROVENZA: Yeah, I put a want on him while you were in with Pope.
Now, as it turns out, the address on his driver s license doesn t exist.
Also, Mateo s 40, and it says he s supposedly born here in LA, but his social security number is only two months old.
- What about vehicle registration? - GABRIEL: He has a car.
He left it at work last night.
Hasn t come back for it.
But we do have two undercovers watching it right now.
So Mateo Hernandez is either a deaf illegal immigrant or his jobsite is our crime scene.
Let s head over to Manta Chemical and have a look-see.
Good.
BREND A: Oh.
And Excellent work, everybody.
As always.
Really.
Always really excellent work.
FRITZ: Hey, excuse me for interrupting, but DOJ says you guys made an inquiry on Mateo Hernandez.
Are you saying that the FBI has a flag on Mateo? - Why? Where is he? - We can t find him just this second.
But this want is a bad thing.
I m not authorized to tell you anything about Mateo, except he s helped us r oll up the American side of some major drug trafficking, and he is a seriously good guy.
Well, you should come with me, then.
Cause I don t want to cause you any more pr oblems at work, but your "seriously good guy" just became my chief suspect in a double homicide.
GOODING: And I should say that all of Mateo s paperwork was in order.
We filed it with the government.
That s all right, Mr.
Gooding.
We re not fr om Immigration.
And he was a real self-starter, too.
Not just sitting ar ound at night.
He burglar-pr oofed the windows.
He fixed our alarms.
He even double-bolted the loading door at the end of business every day.
And this shelving Well, when I left work last night, this was all in r ows in the center of the r oom.
I guess Mateo must have moved it up against the walls.
Oh.
And this is his desk right over here.
- Brenda.
- Hmm.
(FRITZ SIGHS) Look, I didn t know him personally, but fr om what I was told, Mateo was just not the kind of guy who would cause the sort of pr oblem you found this morning.
- I disagree.
- Why is that? Because there s two casings right here between the shelves.
TAO: From a.
45.
For those in the know, nothing better in the handgun biz.
Chief.
Wasn t something like this used to tape down the tarp on the truck? - Yes.
- SANCHEZ: Chief.
Look what I found.
The water in this bucket has blood in it.
Looks like he tried to mop the blood up off the floor.
FLYNN: Yeah, but why not wipe the walls down, too? Why just put shelves in fr ont of it? Maybe he ran out of time.
BREND A: The lock on this door has been taken apart fr om the inside.
Mr.
Gooding, when did that happen? It wasn t like that when I left yesterday.
So the bodies were already here when the squad car pulled up to check on the shots-fired report.
Mateo actually went outside and spoke to the responding officers, tells them he doesn t hear a gunfight while the victims are lying here on the floor? When the police left, Mateo was afraid that they might come back, so he stopped cleaning up, he pushed the shelves up against the wall, he dragged his victims out into the stolen truck and drives them four blocks from his church.
All right.
This business about not talking to the priest is getting ridiculous.
Father Donahue has had his minute.
Chief! Look, just hold on a second.
We can ask Father Donahue to come visit us.
I mean, but walking into his church and demanding to see him? - That would raise holy hell right now.
- I don t think it matters anymore what kind of hell we raise, honestly.
Okay, okay, Chief.
We all read the article in the Times this morning.
We understand.
It s not good.
So now is not the best time to pick a battle with the Catholic Church.
Let s fight one Pope at a time.
The FBI s getting ready to fax over some declassified stuff - on Mateo to your murder r oom.
- PROVENZA: See? We got plenty to do.
What s going on? Is Pope really giving you grief about this article? I thought it had more to do with his pr oblems - I can t talk about this right now.
Really.
- TAO: Chief, eight sets of prints inside the pickup.
Two match our victims, one goes with the prints we found on the car Mateo left at work, and five still unknown.
Thank you, Lieutenant.
You want to summarize this for everybody? Sure.
All right, guys, Manuel Rivera, a.
k.
a.
Mateo Hernandez, used to be a Tijuana comandante.
He refused to back off as the Ochoa cartel, when they moved in, started buying up the local police.
Great.
Now the cartels are coming up here to shoot it out.
No, not Mateo.
A year ago, he abandons Mexico, he drives up to Los Angeles with enough evidence to dismantle half the Ochoa cartel s American distribution system.
I think your two vics here were sent by the cartel to kill him.
Okay, how did Gonzales and Gomez know where to find your informant if the FBI gave Manuel this new identity, Mateo? Well, Mateo s 18-year-old nephew came to visit last week.
Two days after he goes back to Mexico, he s murdered.
And Mateo said the cartel went after his nephew to find out where we had put him.
Mateo s FBI case officer talked to Mexican Federales.
They said the kid was collateral damage in a random gunfight between gangs.
- What was his name, Mateo s nephew? - Ramon Camacho.
Why? Well, Mexico posts all its morgue photos online, and I use it sometimes to locate missing gang members on their database.
- There he is, Ramon Camacho.
- FRITZ: Are you kidding me? Cause of death, blunt-force trauma.
He was beaten, not shot.
Pr obably tortured for information.
And the investigating officers, Jacinto Gonzales and Carlos Gomez.
- TAO: Our victims.
- Great.
That s one way to get away with murder, investigate it yourself.
So they grab the kid and find out where the uncle is, they beat him until he talks, and then they kill him.
FLYNN: And Manuel, a.
k.
a.
Mateo, hears about this and realizes that they re coming for him.
So Gonzales and Gomez sneak up on him somehow at work.
Even have the tape out to put it over his mouth, same as they did his nephew.
Yeah, but Mateo fought back.
I mean, self-defense.
Or maybe since he knew his identity had been compr omised, he knew someone was coming, so he was prepared.
He limited access to only one entrance door, so he knew exactly where Gomez and Gonzales would enter, - almost lying in wait for them.
- Is there anything we can do to help? Well, that depends.
Am I finding Mateo so the FBI can swoop down and take him away fr om me? Not if he committed murder, no.
Lieutenant Tao, that dried blood on the back of the pickup s cab, I keep bumping on it for some reason.
Would you have SID determine if it matches up to any of our victims, please? Thank you.
TAYLOR: Chief Johnson.
- Yes, Commander? - Deputy Chief Johnson, this is Comandante Martin Vasquez fr om the Internal Affairs Division of the Tijuana Police.
He s here to see about your victims.
Thank you for coming, Comandante.
Let me fill you in on what I know so far.
(SPEAKING SPANISH) - Chief.
- Yes? Listen, I know how things sounded this morning, but trust me.
I m working all this out.
Yeah.
I can tell.
Chief, did it ever occur to you that it may not be Priority Homicide the police commission has a pr oblem with? Excuse me, Commander? Chief Pope is in charge of our race relations here, and it s blowing up in his face.
So maybe instead of getting all pissed off at me, maybe you should check out how long an assistant chief usually lasts at the LAPD.
I thought you d want to help me keep our friend fr om an early retirement.
By giving up my division? Why am I supposed to be the fall guy here? (BREND A SIGHS) You know what, Commander? I don t want to talk about this with you now.
Pardon me.
Excuse me.
VASQUEZ: This man you call Mateo, I knew as Manuel Rivera.
How well did you know Manuel Rivera? We worked together.
I trusted him.
Do you have any reason to believe that the officers he shot were corrupt? The operating rule in Tijuana right now is, "Trust no one.
" I know the feeling.
And yet you stay.
To succeed, corruption depends on decent people either giving in or giving up.
And I don t like giving up.
Now, Manuel, he was my friend, but he abandoned his country, he has a new name.
After changing so much, who can say what he is like today? I would like to think this is self-defense on Manuel s part, but it would be great to hear someone say that out loud.
Is it possible to get a report fr om your morgue? Okay, squat down a little.
(CLEARS THROAT) Down a little more.
And, Chief Johnson, if you II just stand there.
Um Okay.
Now, Sergeant Gabriel, if you II just grab me fr om behind.
- Really? - Ar ound the neck.
Not too tight.
Okay, Chief Johnson, walk towards me.
And bang, bang, bang, bang! He shoots Gonzales.
Bang! He blasts away Gomez s elbow.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang! (EX CLAIMS) Oh, my God.
What is on that sponge? Just water.
Oh.
You know what? I m not sure.
Here s an antibacterial wipe.
You II be fine.
Pr obably.
You know what? Take two.
So, our victims were killed while attacking someone else? The angle of his entry wounds indicate the gun was pr obably fired over the shoulder and at extremely close range.
The other guy, just a few feet away fr om the weapon.
(VASQUEZ SIGHS) VASQUEZ: Gonzales has four kids.
What am I gonna tell his wife? I should call her, I suppose.
Now, I understand that you still need to find Manuel and get his side of the story, but the doctor s explanation seems to fit the theory of self-defense, yes? But if Manuel was just pr otecting himself, why didn t he call the police and report what happened or alert the FBI? But he did alert the FBI.
According to you, he told them last week what he thought might happen, and they did nothing.
And if you re fr om Tijuana and you know how much money these cartels have to thr ow ar ound, you think to yourself, "Hey, maybe someone from the FBI is giving me up.
" That s being a little paranoid, don t you think? VASQUEZ: Manuel took on the cartels.
Paranoia is how you stay alive.
Myself, as well.
I must keep my schedule secret.
I sleep in a different place every night.
Someone s house or an apartment or a church.
- I put bullet pr oof glass in my office - I m sorry.
- Did you say you sleep in churches? - Well, even the cartels are a little afraid of God.
Chief.
We are not going to that church.
Lieutenant Pr ovenza said Father Donahue s minute has turned into hours.
Excuse me, Comandante, are you up for a little confession? Are you sure you wouldn t like to accompany me, Comandante? If Manuel really has sought sanctuary here, seeing a Tijuana Police officer may not be the best way to convince him to come out.
All right, then.
Wish me luck.
- Chief.
- Yes? I just want to say again, for the record, that without the permission of the archdiocese, this is a very bad idea.
Churches are like foreign embassies.
We can t just go storm into them Thank you so much for the warning, Sergeant.
Now, if y all excuse me, I II be back just as soon as I can.
(DOORBELL RINGS) Oh.
Sorry.
- Father Donahue? - Yes? I m Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson of the LAPD.
The archdiocese said I could pop on by and ask a few questions.
- Do you mind? - Oh.
Uh.
Well (CLEARS THROAT) - Okay.
- Thank you.
Who did you speak to at the archdiocese? Um I couldn't pronounce his last name, so I just kept calling him "Father.
" I m sorry.
Were you eating dinner with someone? He was called away.
I was told that you were the only priest here.
I am.
Have a seat.
Can I get you anything? Thank you.
A glass of water would be nice.
Do you watch a lot of Spanish television? (CHUCKLES) Oh.
My congregation s mostly Latino, so These pr ograms impr ove my language skills.
- I see.
- What can I do for you? Well, first, I just want to thank you so much for calling in the murders this morning.
You re welcome.
- Thank you.
- Sure.
And I was just wondering, the street where you found the bodies is several blocks away fr om here.
And unless you make a habit of removing tarps fr om the backs of stolen pickups, it seems to me you went out looking for the victims.
Which is why you br ought the oil for last rites.
You did perform last rites on them, didn t you? - Why is that important to you? - Because you interfered with my physical evidence, and it s my responsibility to find out how these men lost their lives.
And I take that very seriously.
And it s my responsibility to make sure they don t lose their souls, as well.
And I take that very seriously.
How did you know about the bodies in the first place? I m sorry.
I can t share that information with you.
Because it came to you under the seal of confession? - That s right.
- Was the person who shared this with you a man or a woman? Yes.
This isn t a guessing game.
All right, then, Father.
Let s have a theological discussion.
Because you found out about those bodies in confession, doesn t that mean a sin was involved? Are you familiar with how confession works? I d say so, yes.
And I wouldn t think that killing someone in self-defense is a sin.
The commandment reads, "Thou shalt not kill.
" It s pretty unambiguous.
Now, whether those deaths were murder or self-defense, I m not qualified to say.
I help the penitent find forgiveness fr om God, not fr om the state.
Did you help a man named Manuel Rivera, also known as Mateo Hernandez? He attends church services here.
I know it because I found this on his desk.
Now, you re known as a sanctuary church.
Immigration has been here several times, and they And been turned away, yes.
God doesn t recognize national borders.
I, however, am very good at recognizing my parishioners, and you re not one of them.
I II tell the archdiocese that we spoke.
- Look, Father, I need your help.
- I II be happy to pray for you Manuel or Mateo or whatever name you know him by, he came to see you.
I know it.
The FBI knows it, the Tijuana Police know it, and that means, sooner or later, the Ochoa drug cartel will know it.
And this is what happened to the last person who knew where Mateo was and tried to keep it a secret.
Right.
Okay.
What would you do with Manuel if you found him? I would hold him on homicide charges until I checked out his story.
I celebrate mass three days a week at the county jail, and I take confession fr om the Border Br others and the Sinaloan Cowboys and members of every Latino street gang in Los Angeles.
All of whom, in one way or another, are connected to dope, which means the Ochoa cartel.
They re waiting for you to arrest somebody named Manuel Rivera or Mateo Hernandez.
They ve been told a former Tijuana comandante of that name is gonna show up, and whoever kills him earns an instant $50,000 for his family.
Ms.
Johnson, Manuel has a price on his head.
He s not gonna last an hour in the county jail.
Well, I m certain that we could find a safe place to hold him.
Fortunately, that s not your pr oblem.
Is it politically incorrect to suggest that this is a Mexican stand-off? Look, if you re really serious about pr otecting Manuel, I always believe actions are more powerful than words.
So the day that a negative fr ont-page article appears in the Times about Priority Homicide, - you seal off a Catholic church.
- We re not on their pr operty.
Chief, we could have undercovers out here stopping anybody fr om coming out.
But they wouldn t have stopped people fr om going in.
Pardon me.
Excuse me, Chief Johnson, but, personally, I don t believe Manuel would ever come out of this church - with it surr ounded like this.
- There s a bit of a negotiation going on, Comandante.
I II admit that.
But we II get thr ough it.
Pardon me.
(SIGHING) Prints on this, I hope.
Let s see if they match Mateo s.
Okay, and I think I know why you were bumping on the blood in the back of the pickup.
Because, first of all, it was several days old.
But the San Diego police spoke to the owner of that truck, and he said it just went missing this morning.
I m thinking that s not entirely true, because the blood is AB negative.
Very rare.
It doesn t type out with either of our victims.
But I spoke to the Mexican morgue, and Manuel Rivera s nephew, AB negative.
Thank you.
Sergeant Gabriel, I want the license, registration, and insurance on that stolen pickup - as soon as possible.
Thank you.
- Okay.
I really think what we have here is a gigantic misunderstanding revolving around the word "priority" and how it's applied.
Come on in, Chief Johnson.
- Hello, Ricardo.
- Hope you re not angry with me, Chief.
- I did call your team "elite.
" - TAYLOR: But, you see, - that s part of the misunderstanding.
- POPE: Right, exactly.
Exactly what I was about to say.
You think that the word "priority" means we re assigning greater value to victims who are white and/ or rich, and we were never doing that, were we, Chief Johnson? - No.
- POPE: And as a matter of fact, you ve sort of jumped the gun on us a little bit, because we re already under way with a major departmental reorganization, and the first thing we are dr opping is Priority Homicide because of the misinterpretation of the name.
Okay, let me stop you right there.
First of all, I didn t misinterpret anything.
The racial statistics speak for themselves, and Chief Johnson told - I can address that.
- Still talking.
Still talking.
And Chief Johnson told me herself that you deploy her division, which includes, what, three lieutenants, in anticipation of newsworthy crimes? Which means in addition to race, you re allowing the media to determine your agenda.
No.
No, no, no.
That was never the case.
And Chief Johnson was mistaken when she suggested that, and I m sure she d like to tell you so.
I would.
I was irritated at the time and I spoke without thinking.
We called the division "Priority Homicide" because we were experimenting with the concept of team investigation.
And this experiment, which has been completely successful, by the way, was the main focus in our homicide cases.
Hence, the word "priority.
" And we used our best people because we felt, given that the concept was fairly new, innovative Right.
Cutting-edge, really.
It wasn t something we wanted to explore with less-experienced detectives.
And these were very tough cases, featuring suspects with greater resources, who, as we find in the greater population, often turn out to be white.
Anyway, Priority Homicide is now a thing of the past.
As of tomorr ow, actually, Deputy Chief Johnson will be heading a new division called "Major Crimes," which will incorporate homicide units fr om acr oss the city.
Major Crimes.
The D A s office has a department with the same designation.
Well, if I can say that you sped up this reorganization in response to part 1 of my article, this definitely changes the nature of what I m writing in part 2.
Oh.
Well, you certainly deserve to take credit for this, - don t you think, Chief Pope? - Absolutely.
In fact, if you d like to come by tomorr ow, we can - show you what we re up to.
- And this isn t just some cosmetic shake-up, right? There s actually gonna be - some change involved? - Oh, no, no.
It s going to be huge.
Major Crimes puts my division in charge not only of homicide, but also the larger fraud cases.
And kidnappings and rapes.
- Rape and kidnapping.
- Well, yes.
Those are major crimes, aren t they? I mean, does anyone think that rape isn t a major crime? Oh.
And Commander Taylor will be reporting directly to me, coordinating my interaction with the other divisions.
Of course, my elite team of detectives will stay entirely intact.
- It s gonna be great! - Mmm-hmm.
- Yeah.
- This is exclusively mine? You re the first to hear it.
Now, if you gentlemen will excuse me, I have a murder to wrap up.
Pardon me.
You see, and I Stupid me.
I thought you guys were gonna be, like, all mad and stuff.
(CHUCKLES) All right, well, what time should I be here tomorr ow? - Uh Whatever time works for you.
- Yeah.
Yeah, we re here.
(CHUCKLES) Actually, she s here.
I m gonna call you back.
Chief! You ready for this? License and registration on the pickup truck.
TAO: Chief! The prints on the fork you gave me, Mateo s, a.
k.
a.
Manuel Rivera.
Okay, so we know he s in the church.
No one fr om Central moves fr om there until I give the word.
Thank you.
Lieutenant Tao, there is one last set of prints I want you to pick up for me, and if you could match them to one of the unidentified pair we found on the not-so-stolen pickup, I would be eternally grateful.
Okay.
And fr om where would I be lifting these prints fr om, exactly? Chief, I pulled up the D VD Agent Howard br ought in.
Plus, we have stills.
Everything coming over the Mexican border synced up to license plates.
So we went thr ough them manually, and we started an hour before the time stamp on our victims passports.
All right, let me go over this quickly before I interview the suspect.
- Manuel s turning himself in? - No, no, but I ve pr oven that he s in the church, and I ve surr ounded it with police officers, so I m pretty sure he s safe.
BUZZ: And here s our victims, Chief.
But I thought this truck was stolen last night.
No.
That s just what you told the San Diego police this morning when you realized that your plan to kill Manuel had gone terribly wr ong.
Let s keep this r olling for a moment.
I think we re in for another surprise.
Comandante, may I have your passport, please? Gentlemen, may I have your help? This is outrageous! You have no right to treat me this way! - I am assisting you! - And what better way to get away with murder than to investigate it yourself? Murder? You cannot charge me with murder.
But we can for illegal possession of a passport, because you re definitely not two people, and yet you have two official IDs.
And there s a time stamp on this one.
- Oh, my God.
- PROVENZA: Well, what a coincidence.
There you are cr ossing the border right behind Gomez and Gonzales.
GABRIEL: And what passport did you use? Did you use Martin Vasquez or Raul Llamas? You know, the name the truck s registered under? Obviously, you spend the money the cartel pays you - living your other life in San Diego.
- No.
No.
- The truck is not mine.
- Sir, we just matched your prints off the pictures of the victims that you handled in my office to a previously unidentified pair that we found in the pickup.
We also found a rare type of blood in the pickup s cab, which matches that of Manuel Rivera s nephew.
Now, we have some hard decisions to make.
And I need your help.
Or things are gonna go very badly for you, sir.
Very badly.
You have no idea how things are in Tijuana right now.
Is this how you explain things to people who don t understand? How many people do you explain it to the way you explained it to that boy? The boy was killed in Mexico.
- It s not your concern.
- How do you know he was killed in Mexico? Doesn t say so on the photograph! (VASQUEZ SCOFFS) Look.
Let s be reasonable here.
You don t want to hold me on this silly passport issue.
I d be out of your jail in hours.
But Manuel Rivera wouldn t have been out in hours, would he? You knew that if Manuel successfully defended himself against Gomez and Gonzales that I would be forced to leave him in the county jail while I investigated his story, where you put a bounty on his head so one of his fellow prisoners would kill him! Manuel put a bounty on his own head when he chose to fight the cartels.
He will be a target the rest of his life.
Pr ove I did that, put a bounty on his head.
Prove it.
You can t even pr ove that I sent Gomez and Gonzales - to kill him in the first place.
- But if I could pr ove that, you d be responsible for their deaths.
And we could arrest you on two counts of felony murder.
Now, I m gonna read you your rights and give you the opportunity to confess your crimes.
Don t waste your time.
I have nothing to say.
We II see about that.
Oh, no.
Two passports.
I don t know which name to arrest you under.
That complicates things.
It doesn t matter which name.
All right, then.
I II send you to the county jail this way Mateo Hernandez, a.
k.
a.
Manuel Rivera, you are under arrest for the murder of - Jacinto Gonzales and Carlos Gomez! - What? SANCHEZ: You have the right to remain silent.
- You know that s not my name! - SANCHEZ: Anything you say can What difference does it make? You said it didn t matter.
SANCHEZ: If you can t afford one, one will be appointed for you by the state.
Have you heard and understood these rights? - You cannot arrest me as Manuel! - I can, and I have.
This is murder! If it is, then you planned it yourself.
And you can stop it.
Did you send Gomez and Gonzales acr oss the border to kill Manuel Rivera? Did you offer $50,000 to the person who could kill him? No! You! You must arrest me as Martin Vasquez! I m so sorry, sir.
I m changing your name to pr otect the innocent.
(SCOFFS) (SHOUTING) Let her go! Let her go, you son of a bitch! I will kill you! You will die for this, all of you! You will all die for this, all of you! All of you! You will all die for this! - Son of a bitch! - You will all die for this! Die for what, Comandante? What s there to be afraid of, Comandante? Huh? If you re really innocent, you II be out of jail in no time.
Wait! Wait! I have I have access to I can make you all rich, all of you! - Hey, Vasquez! - VASQUEZ: Wait! If you see Gonzales and Gomez, tell them we all said hi.
(CHURCH BELL RINGING) (KNOCKING ON DOOR) Hey, this place is kind of beautiful.
Don t start.
Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.
How long has it been since your last confession? Well, I almost got one last night, but the suspect, Manuel Rivera, a.
k.
a.
Mateo Hernandez, was killed in the county jail.
- You say Manuel is dead? - Officially, yes.
And it s been reported in the press.
That s why I removed the police fr om ar ound your church.
You re safe now.
And so is your friend.
And what will become of the man I know as Manuel Rivera? Well, I have an FBI agent here, if Manuel wants to be supplied with a new identity.
But you re an expert in immigration.
And if there s one thing our government has successfully pr oven that it can t do at all, it s find illegal aliens.
(SIGHS) I II keep you in my prayers.
I II take that in the spirit it was given, Father.
(BREND A SIGHS) Manuel? Good luck to you, sir.
Bless you, señora.
I will need it.
English - SDH