by Hal Erickson
synopsis
The police department receives at tip that a war between two teenage gangs, the Orchids and the Pink Rats, is scheduled to begin within 48 hours. Knowing that both sides are well armed with stolen weapons, Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) race against time to prevent the bloodshed. But they're too late: a scant few hours before the war is to begin, an 11-year-old boy is killed in a shootout. The climactic scene between the cocky young killer and the victim's grieving mother is a classic. This episode is based on the Dragnet radio broadcast of November 10, 1953.
