Tonight on NBC Law & Order returns with an all-new Thursday, February 29, 2024 episode and we have your Law & Order recap below. In tonight’s Law & Order season 23 episode 6 “On The Ledge,” as per the NBC synopsis,
“When NYPD responds to the scene of an active shooter in a nearby hospital, Shaw is shocked at his connection to the suspect. Maroun and Price face a difficult trial when the defendant offers up an insanity plea.”
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Detective Jalen Shaw was on his way home when he came upon a scene. He saw a man on a ledge. He knew the man was considering suicide and he did everything possible to talk him out of it. The man on the ledge identified himself as Bill Johnson. He said he was a failure. He said that he wasn’t worth saving. Shaw refused to believe him. He kept Bill talking. Bill admitted he has a son. He was all his son had left in the world and so Shaw started talking about his own dad. His father was a single dad too. Shaw loves his dad. He looked up to his father. He was sure that Bill’s son felt the same way about Bill. And he said as much.
Shaw soon talked Bill off that ledge. Shaw had wanted to call for an ambulance after that. Bill talked him out of it. He said he needed to get home and to be there for his son. Before they parted ways, Shaw gave Bill his card so that Bill would have someone to talk to if he ever felt suicidal again. Bill appreciated the gesture. He even thanked Shaw for saving his life. Bill should have gone home and he didn’t. He instead went to Mercy General where he shot up the place. He killed a doctor. Shaw and his partner Detective Riley caught that murder.
They went to the hospital to investigate. The witnesses didn’t see the shooter’s face. He was wearing a hoodie and a mask. They just saw the shooter rush past them to kill Dr. Bryan Jeffers. He was the main target of the shooting. Bill was intent on killing him. Only Shaw didn’t know about Bill’s involvement at that point. He just knew that Bryan was the target. Bryan also had issues with someone. He had problems with Terrence Lamont. He had security escort Lamont out of the building. And Lamont carries a license for the same type of weapon used in the shooting.
Shaw along with Riley thought Lamont was the shooter. They went to his home with a warrant. They asked him about his gun and he quickly lawyered up. Lamont didn’t say anything else before his lawyer arrived. It was with his lawyer’s permission that he admitted his gun was stolen. Lamont filed a police report two months prior to the shooting. The detective checked his story. He was telling the truth, but he wasn’t telling the full truth. Lamont admitted he was there at the hospital after the shooting. He saw a man fleeing the hospital. He included that he saw the man throw his mask away.
The District Attorney’s Office couldn’t check the inside cameras because of the hospital’s privilege. They had to use the external cameras. They saw someone running from the hospital. They saw him put a gun into a school backup. The backup had the insignia for the Saint Francis Academy. It was a high school. The backup also had the name “Daniel” on it. The detective spoke to the school. They learned only one Daniel was missing from school that day. His name was Daniel Cartwright. He was at home because his mother had died the day before.
Daniel’s mother Nora was in her third trimester when she began feeling pain. She went to Mercy General. They didn’t find anything. The doctor sent her back home where she went into premature labor and died. Daniel has been home since then with his aunt. They were together all day. They were planning the funeral. His father on the other hand wasn’t there. His dad had bought the same gun as the one used to murder the doctor. Shaw recognized “Bill” from the family photos in the apartment.
His real name is Kenneth Cartwright. He tried to kill himself after his wife and baby died. Shaw talked him out of it. Shaw was beating himself up for what he did and his partner told him he couldn’t have foreseen what would happen. It didn’t matter if it was Shaw or any other cop. They would have done the same thing. It was Cartwright that decided to shoot up a hospital. He killed the doctor that he blamed for his wife’s death and he wasn’t done. The nurse at the hospital had overheard Cartwright ask about the other doctor involved.
The detectives later caught up to Cartwright before he could kill another doctor. Cartwright put the gun to his own head when he was cornered. Shaw had to talk him out of killing himself again. Cartwright lived to make a spontaneous statement during his arrest. He said an eye for an eye. They killed his wife and so he killed them. Cartwright was mentally unstable. Which he tried to remind everyone of in court. His new lawyer later used the fact that Bryan misdiagnosed a patient after only seeing her for six minutes. She died because black women were often overlooked by doctors.
The doctor was supposed to be a professional. He couldn’t tell that a patient had preeclampsia in spite of knowing instantly with white patients. It doesn’t help that Bryan was a white guy. He was married to a white woman. He has a white family. Cartwright’s lawyer repeated all of that in open court. He was using the plea of Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity. Cartwright was dealing with race based trauma stress. He’s been profiled by the cops five times. He was facing trial at one point because of mistaken identity. He’s been through a lot.
Maroun could see that. Price not so much. They agreed to offer Cartwright a great plea deal. He would serve fifteen years and he could still have a future with his son. Only he turned down the deal. He ignored his lawyer’s advice by doing so.. He said he had to show his son that he was fighting to be with him. It didn’t matter if he won or lost. He wanted his son to see that he was fighting to keep their family together. It would have been nice if he had thought about that before premeditated murder, but that was his mindset going into court.
Cartwright even took the stand. He made for a compelling testimony. It just didn’t explain the premeditation. He called for his sister to be with his son while he took his gun to the hospital. He hunted down both doctors involved in his wife’s misdiagnosis. He was stopped before he could commit more murder. Price was poking holes in the mental insanity statement. He also had to subpoena Shaw because Shaw didn’t want to testify against Cartwright. Shaw hadn’t wanted to talk about the “eye for eye” statement.
Shaw felt for Cartwright. He felt if he had been more proactive about getting Cartwright help after he tried to kill himself then maybe Cartwright wouldn’t have killed those doctors. Shaw thought Cartwright should serve out of his sentence in a mental hospital. He didn’t think he should go to jail. They were both black men. They knew what it was like to live with a thousand microaggressions. The difference was Shaw never acted on his rage. Cartwright did. Riley reminded Shaw of that and it still wasn’t enough to shake Shaw’s guilt.
Shaw later helped convict Cartwright, but he hated himself for it.
THE END