| Thursday 11th March
Sergeant Jo Masters (Sally Rogers) and the team are called to a road traffic accident where motorist Helen Parr (Eleanor Samson) has hit a youth who has since fled the scene. A passing cyclist has discovered a teenage boy lying badly injured in a nearby park. Jo rushes to the scene where she tries to resuscitate the boy along with the ambulance service. They are unable to save him and they discover that the boy has been shot and not hit by a car. There is further confusion as the boy found injured in the park is a white male, motorist Helen Parr claims the teenager she hit was black.
The dead boy is Paul Sorrel (Eddy Elsey). P.C Mel (Rhea Bailey) and P.C Leon Taylor (Dominic Power) are given the difficult task of informing his mother Emma Sorrel (Kate Magowan) who refuses to believe that the boy they have found is her son Paul. Back at the scene of the traffic collision P.C Kristy Knight (Sarah Manners) discovers a bag of cannabis under the car that hit the teenager. Leon speaks to Paul’s mother Emma (Kate Magowan) about the possibility of Paul being involved in drugs. In the meantime a teenager Devon Marshall (Anthony Welsh). who has been hit by a car turns up at St Hughes.
D.C Mickey Webb (Chris Simmons) finds Jasmine Harris (Faye Daveney) wandering the streets and persuades her to speak to him about the shooting. After some convincing (and a small fee) Jasmine tells Mickey that just before the shooting she saw Paul Sorrel with Devon Marshall leaving a local off licence and heading towards the park where Paul was found critically injured.
D.S Max Carter (Christopher Fox) is not happy with how the investigation is being carried out and is highly critical of Sergeant Jo Masters and her team. Jo quickly reminds Max that if it weren’t for her team there would be no evidence. Commander Lisa Kennedy (Julie Graham) is overseeing the case and puts her trust in Jo to not only solve the case but to pull the team together following Sergeants Stone’s recent suspension. After being interviewed by Inspector Smith (Alex Walkinshaw) and Sergeant Masters, (Sally Rogers) Devon Marshall (Anthony Welsh) is released due to a lack of evidence. D.C Mickey Webb speaks to Jasmine Harris again who insists Devon Marshall was definitely in the park at the time of the shooting. She claims he said that he “had business to do” just before meeting Paul Sorrel, but she claims there was also someone else in the park with Paul and Devon. Jasmine claims the third person in the park was Jedda Atkins (Ashley Gerlach) and tells Mickey where he can find him.
When a gun is found (matching the one that killed Paul) under a mattress in the house where Jedda is staying he is immediately taken in for questioning. He denies all knowledge of the gun and claims he is just staying at the house. He says he was indoors the whole evening on the night of the shooting. Jedda’s alibi is confirmed and when the team receive the news that the gun found under the mattress is not the same weapon that killed Paul Sorrel, Jedda is released. The team continue the search for the gunman…
Previously on The Bill: Thursday 4th March
Whilst out on patrol PC Nate Roberts (Ben Richards) and PC Benjamin Gayle’s (Micah Balfour) vehicle is hit by a bullet. Coming through the back windscreen and grazing Nate’s neck before exiting through the front windscreen the bullet passes through the car with both PC’s narrowly avoiding serious injury.Nate (Ben Richards) and Ben (Micah Balfour) jump out of the car to administer first aid to a member of the public waiting at a bus stop who has been hit by a second bullet.
Inspector Dale Smith (Alex Walkinshaw) and Sergeant Jo Masters (Sally Rogers) rush to the scene with the rest of the team, they immediately seal off the area and a search begins. P.C Kirsty Knight (Sarah Manners) is tasked with taking a statement from local resident Keith Shipley (James Larkin) who witnessed a car speeding off just after the shots were fired. Back at the station Commander Lisa Kennedy (Julie Graham) is called in again to oversee the enquiry. Nate (Ben Richards) is visibly shaken but both he and Ben (Micah Balfour) insist they are ok and want to continue working.
The team track down the registration of the car seen speeding away from the shooting, it is registered to a Malcolm Christie (John Dagleish). With CO19 on standby Inspector Smith (Alex Walkinshaw) and Sergeant Masters (Sally Rogers) lead the team to arrest prime suspect Malcolm Christie (John Dagleish).
Whilst Christie is being questioned back at Sun Hill his car is taken in for forensic examination which reveals it has very recently been deep cleaned, adding to Inspector Smith (Alex Walkinshaw) and Sergeant Masters (Sally Rogers) suspicions that Malcolm Christie is behind the shooting.
At the scene C.S.E Eddie Olosunje (Jason Barnett) discovers the bullet that hit Nate and Ben’s car was in fact a ricochet rather than a direct hit. Moments later the team searching the scene around the shooting find two bullet casings outside the home of eyewitness Mr Shipley. P.C Kirsty Knight (Sarah Manners) speaks to Mr Shipley’s son ten year old Scott (Jamie Glover) who claims he didn’t look out the window but heard a car circling the block just before the shots were fired. P.C Knight also discovers that the family were recently burgled which has left them very shaken.
After speaking to the garage where Malcolm Christie had his car cleaned the team have to release him as they confirm he had his car cleaned twenty minutes before the shooting.
Watching the CCTV retrieved from the scene DS Stevie Moss (Lucy Speed), D.C Mickey Webb (Chris Simmons) and D.C Jacob Banks (Patrick Robinson) spot a girl begin to run a couple of seconds before the first shot is fired. They believe she could lead them to the gunman. The girl is Jasmine Harris (Faye Daveney) who lives locally with her mother. When Stevie (Lucy Speed) and Mickey (Chris Simmons) question her about why she ran before the shots were fired she claims she has a ‘sixth sense for trouble’ that you have to have when you ‘live on the Manor’. However her mother reveals that Malcolm Christie is Jasmine’s boyfriend and shows them a threatening text message sent to Jasmine by Christie after she publicly dumped him.
This is enough evidence for the team to bring Malcolm Christie back in for further questioning. Smithy (Alex Walkinshaw) leads the team, along with CO19 to re arrest Christie at home. When they arrive Christie is taking the rubbish out and spots the police van. As the team move in to arrest him he snaps, refusing to come quietly he runs back inside and brandishes a large kitchen knife at the window. CO19 take over and take Christie down with the taser. As the situation calms down Nate and the rest of the team confront Smithy about the lack of support that Sergeant Stone has received and feel that they do not have the support they should from above. Moral in the team is very low.
Commander Kennedy is furious when she discovers Nate and Ben were sent out to arrest Malcolm Christie moments after being shot at. She orders Smithy to send them home.
Whilst Malcolm Christie is being interviewed P.C Kirsty Knight again questions Scott Shipley at home and begins to get frustrated when Scott continues to claim he didn’t see anything. When Stevie and Mickey talk to Jasmine Harris she reveals that she ran from the scene just before the shots were fired because she had been shoplifting and saw the police car, not because (as they had earlier believed) she saw Malcolm Christie. The team reluctantly have to release Christie. During a second search of the scene a gun is found in a drain outside the Shipley’s home. When examined forensically the gun is found to have the fingerprints of someone with small hands. Smithy begins to think that Scott Shipley may know more about the shooting than he’s letting on.
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