Was Danny Responsible? *Child's Play Spoilers*

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After watching "Child's Play," I have to say that while I sympathize with Danny and what he's going through in the episode, I feel like he made a grave error in judgment. After hearing the commotion at the bodega, Danny never should have sent Ruben off on his own. Yes, he's a cop, but Danny's first responsibility was to that little boy; he should have called 911 and gotten Ruben to safety before investigating the scene. The robber was already fleeing--another reason he never should have sent Ruben home by himself!--and no matter what was happening at the bodega, Danny did have a responsibility to keep Ruben safe.

What do you guys think? Was Danny responsible for Ruben's death? Was it negligence to send Ruben home alone?

I'll go ahead and throw up a poll--a simple yes or no. I realize there are many shades of grey with this question, so use your post to further elaborate on your vote. :)
 
I haven't seen the episode yet, so I won't vote just now. :) I do think that bad judgement is consistent with Danny's character. His decision to pursue the suspect onto the subway platform and exchange fire with him didn't work out so well in "On The Job" either. But this was less a mistake than going to IAB after both Flack and Mac advised him to sit tight.

Mac said Danny went with his instincts? Maybe his instincts just aren't so good. He tends to be impulsive and trust the wrong people (if Danny likes them, they're guilty).

For all that it sucks to be Danny right now, I'm glad that we have this kind of character consistency. Moreover, it makes Danny more appealing rather than less. It's his flaws that make him believable and accessible.
 
Sorry if this is a bit ramblely I’m running on no sleep whatsoever but I wanna say this now because if I don't I might not later:lol:. I’m kind of ehhhh about this.

On the one hand despite the fact that the perp. was running, for all Danny knew there might have been another one still in the store or lots of people might have been injured. And as a cop you also want to make sure everything in there is under control ASAP so others don’t get hurt and the place isn’t over run with pandemonium. I can understand why you would want to get a child out of their fast and still help people who appear to be hurt or in need of some sort of help. Especially if the child appears ok and you know someone else it hurt. Because at the moment Ruben looked fine when leaving. Danny had no idea.

On the other hand though he was supposed to be watching Ruben and he let him go without thinking to at least make sure he was ok. He could have done a quick once over. He could have also checked afterwards to make sure he got home ok rather than processing the scene.

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I think there’s a lot of what if’s here. I mean what if Danny was to have gone with the Ruben? For all we know Ruben would have been shot, & they might have noticed eventually but he might have still died. Or maybe had he gotten home alone ok & his mother would have been happy to know Danny had gotten her son away from there quickly.

In the heat of the moment who knows exactly what was going through Danny’s head. I’m guessing you hear a gunshot and you don’t waste time thinking about all the different options you may or may not have. I sort of feel like whole thing was just a series of very,very,very unfortunate events. I can't say Danny did the right thing, but I can't say he did the wrong thing either.
 
It was very possibly a no-win situation, whichever way Danny would have gone with it.

But I do feel that, despite Danny being a CSI, his first and foremost responsibility was to Ruben and his safety, and getting him home into his mother's arms, period. Call 911 on the way, but deliver Ruben home before running off and playing cops and robbers.

Danny often displays questional judgement at the expense of his quick-to-surface emotions, and I thought this case was intriguing in that Danny opted for acting out his professional duties, rather than his personal duty to Ruben. I could just as easily had imagined Emo-Danny protecting Ruben and getting him home, and being devastated afterwards at leaving carnage behind at the robbery. And in this case, that's what he should have done, IMO. Robbery or not, Ruben should have been his priority.
 
Remember too that Danny paused to answer his cell phone while he and Ruben were in transit. Ruben got just far enough ahead to make me nervous about him getting either snatched by someone, or inadvertently running into traffic. That was Danny's first big mistake: you have a child in your charge, the cell phone can wait a couple of minutes, especially if you were that close to home.

Then he didn't escort Ruben home. I know that, as a police officer, you're never truly off duty. But we have two things in play here: the robbery, where he was able to save the bodega owner, but the guy wasn't critically injured anyway, and his sister would have called 911; and child endangerment, because even if that was Ruben and Danny's neighborhood, it's still a very busy area and anything could happen. So, by choosing the crime over the child, he made a really bad decision and because this is Danny, he's going to blame himself for it for a very long time. Ultimately, he is responsible for Ruben's death.
 
He is partly responsible. He had a 10 year-old boy in his care and that was his main priority. Even though Ruben was only a block or two away from the apartment building, you don't take your eyes off a child that young. Ever. And in a big city no less. Ruben could have just as easily been grabbed by someone in the alley if he hadn't been shot. Danny may have been a street wise kid, but that was 20 some years ago. Times have changed and Ruben didn't strike me as a street wise kid. We don't know if Ruben could've been saved had Danny been with him and realized he was shot, but that doesn't change the fact that Danny should've stayed with him.

ETA:
Springmoon said:
Remember too that Danny paused to answer his cell phone while he and Ruben were in transit. Ruben got just far enough ahead to make me nervous about him getting either snatched by someone, or inadvertently running into traffic.
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Agreed. I was nervous about that too. If Danny had kept up with Ruben or made Ruben stay with him, he may have not gotten shot at all.
 
No way was Danny responsible for this!
It truly was just bad luck. I personally think he did the best thing he could have in the situation.
His apartment was a block away. As a polcie officer, he has the responsibility to help the city - there was no reason to think that sending Ruben home on his own would be a bad decision, and there was a guy with a gun in a crowded street - way more reason to think somebody would be injured at the bodega.
 
But I do feel that, despite Danny being a CSI, his first and foremost responsibility was to Ruben and his safety, and getting him home into his mother's arms, period. Call 911 on the way, but deliver Ruben home before running off and playing cops and robbers.
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I agree 100% with MB, Danny was fully responsible for Ruben. His first and only priority was to that 10 year old child, and his mother. She entrusted Danny to protect her child, and keep him safe. There was no bad luck involved in this, just bad judgement on Danny's part, and I agree, that this will haunt him for a very long time, if not forever.

It's bad enough that us parents, have to worry everyday as our children walk off to school, or catch the school bus, that they get there safely. But we shouldn't have to worry as much, especially when we entrust our child in the capable hands of someone we know and trust.
 
This is my first post here although I've lurked for a long long time.

I voted no. Yes, I agree that Danny's responsibility was to Ruben;however, Ruben was shot right in front of the store. He wasn't shot after he got out of Danny's sight. It was one of those very very tragic accidents. He wasn't being negligent in my opinion. I totally forgot this was the episode last night and wound up watching it on CBS.com this morning. And yes, I bawled.
 
Was Danny responsible for Ruben's death?

No! The only one responsible for that poor boy's death was that stupid girl who decided to fire a gun in the direction of a crowded street.

And of course Danny made a bad judgement call when he let Ruben turn the corner and let him get out of his sight and an even worse one when he send him home without knowing what exactly was going on in that street. But even if he had been there with the boy he still couldn't have stopped that bullet and its horrible effect.

So he might blame himself and his decisions for the rest of his life, but the ultimate responsibility in cases like this lies with the people who decide to pick up a weapon and fire it. :(
 
Funny, the legal part of my brain starts going through various offenses of which Danny might be guilty here. I landed on reckless endangerment (which wouldn't even result in a conviction given the circumstances), which is a far cry from responsibility for Reuben's death. But that's not really what I think, on a moral level.

Danny was already in a precarious position with Reuben before shots rang out. When escorting a child on bike home through the crowded streets of NYC, he shouldn't have taken the cell phone call. He was a block and half from home. The call could have waited. He also exercised poor judgment in agreeing to time Reuben to the end of the block. This was a crowded street and the kid wasn't allowed to ride alone. Perhaps Danny wanted to play the role of fun big brother or something, but allowing the kid to ride as quickly as he could through a crowded street was a dumb move. Reuben immediately got too far ahead of Danny, causing Danny to lose control of the situation before the shooting at the bodega even started.

Once Danny heard shots, his immediate obligation was to insure Reuben's safety. Did he really think Reuben's mother would entrust her kid to someone who would completely neglect his responsibility to the child in a time of crisis? Danny's obligation was to take the kid to get his bike blessed and return him home safely. For a cop, this shouldn't be asking too much.

He should have gone after Reuben and called 911. His choice here was interesting. He didn't even go after the suspect. He went to check on the shooting victim. Why? There's not a whole lot he could do there aside from calling for medical personnel.

I sympathize with Danny because I could see how torn up he was, but he should feel badly. Very, very badly. He was wrong and there's nothing in the world he can ever do to make it right.
 
I voted No!

In my opinion Danny wasn't responsible. Yes he was 100% responsible for Reuben but was there really anything Danny could do? In Danny's mind Reuben was fine because he wasn't showing any signs of injury so telling him to go home (which was only a block and a half away) was the best thing to do just incase there was a danger at the scene i.e another robber/gun. Danny as we know wants to do everything he can to help, if he saw a man bleeding he couldn't just walk away! So seeing that Reuben was ok because he HAD to look after the man! Reuben himself didn't actually know that he was hurt himself so it was just one of those horrible incidents!
 
Why doesn't anyone get it? Ruben was already shot by the time Danny arrived at the bodega. Ruben would still have died on the way home, and Danny being there wouldn't have changed anything!

If Ruben had been jumped for the bike on the way home, and killed as a result, then yes, I'd blame Danny. But given what happened, I don't see how he's at fault.
 
Snickyfen said:
Why doesn't anyone get it? Ruben was already shot by the time Danny arrived at the bodega. Ruben would still have died on the way home, and Danny being there wouldn't have changed anything!
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We do get it. We also get that if Danny had kept Ruben with him instead of letting him speed off ahead, chances are he would've never been shot in the first place. Even if he was still shot, Danny staying with him would have meant once Danny realized he was injured 911 would have been called and perhaps Ruben could have been saved.
 
Snickyfen said:
Why doesn't anyone get it? Ruben was already shot by the time Danny arrived at the bodega. Ruben would still have died on the way home, and Danny being there wouldn't have changed anything!
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I think that a lot of people are on the side of Danny allowing Ruben out of his immediate control, even for that short period of time. We do get it: he was already shot by the time Danny got there, but had Danny forced Ruben to slow down and stay with him, what happened in a matter of seconds may never have happened at all.

If Ruben had been jumped for the bike on the way home, and killed as a result, then yes, I'd blame Danny. But given what happened, I don't see how he's at fault.
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I think that is also a very real possibility, and yet another reason why the child endangerment discussion had come up. In a crowded neighborhood like that, anything could happen in the blink of an eye.

ETA: Damn you, PA!! :lol:
 
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