New FOX TV show “Shots Fired” takes on police shootings and race

Yesterday, I saw the trailer for FOX’s new TV show Shots Fired, and it instantly had me hooked.

About TV show Shots Fired

The new series tackles on issues dealing with race relations and policing in communities of color.

Though I am not the biggest fan of FOX, I applaud them for taking on an issue that definitely needs a conversation.

Shots Fired, a legal drama, follows the investigation into the death of unarmed white student fatally shot by a black police officer.

Set in the present day, the trailer released references the protests in Ferguson after Michael Brown’s death at the hands of a police officer and other police shootings of unarmed black men.

Cast

Shots Fired stars Sanaa Lathan as an African American case investigator. Ashe Akino and Stephan James are also in the series as Special Prosecutor Preston Terry Both black, who is also African American.  Mack Wilds (The Wire, The Breaks), plays a crooked cop named Deputy Joshua Beck.

“When an African-American police officer kills an unarmed white college student, a small town in North Carolina is turned upside-down. Before the town has a chance to grapple with this tragedy, the neglected murder of an African-American teen is brought to light, re-opening wounds that threaten to tear the town apart…SHOTS FIRED tackles the racial divide from all perspectives. As Ashe and Preston navigate the media attention, public debate and social unrest that come with such volatile cases, they learn that everybody has a story, and that the truth is rarely black and white.”

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TV show Shots Fired plot

While investigating the death of the unarmed white student, Akino and Terry are led to the death of a black 17-year-old fatally shot by police.

A flashback shows him riding a bicycle being chased by a police patrol car. He’s seen wearing a hoodie, an article of clothing which has been demonized ever since 17-year-old Trayvon Martin’s death at the hands of George Zimmerman.

During an intense moment in which a white police officer pushes a young Black man, the trailer shows an image all too familiar: Black community members raising their hands as some record what’s going on with their cellphones.

“All the murdering of unarmed black men by police across this country and this is one the government investigates,” a black woman from a crowd says during a press conference, presumably about the white student that’s been killed.

Shots Fired premiers March 22nd. I cannot wait to see where this show goes.

Trailer