Meldrick Lewis

Meldrick Lewis
Meldrick Lewis
First appearance	January 31, 1993 (1x01, "Gone for Goode")
Last appearance	May 21, 1999 (7x22, Forgive Us Our Trespasses") (HLOTS) February 13, 2000 Homicide: The Movie October 16, 2013 (15x05, "Wonderland Story") (SVU)
Created by	Tom Fontana
Portrayed by	Clark Johnson
Information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Homicide Detective
Title	Detective
Family	Eleanor Lewis (mother) Medea (grandmother) Anthony (brother)
Spouse(s)	Barbara Shivers-Lewis (divorced)
Religion	Baptist
Nationality	American

Meldrick Lewis is a fictional character on the television series Homicide: Life on the Street played by Clark Johnson. The character was loosely based on Baltimore detective Donald Waltemeyer and appeared in the series for its entire run. Lewis had the very first and last lines of the series. Born on September 10, 1962, Lewis was raised in Baltimore's Lafayette Court housing project. In 1996, he watched its demolition and kept a brick from the rubble as a memento. He attended Lake Clifton High School from 1976 to 1980. It is indicated he was raised Baptist, but his wedding was performed by a member of the Universal Life Church.

Lewis joined the homicide unit in April 1990. His first partner in the series was Steve Crosetti, who occasionally irritated him with his arcane historical interests and demeanor. The two usually got along well, however, so Crosetti's later suicide deeply unnerved Lewis. At first he refused to even believe it could be a suicide, reasoning that Crosetti, a devout Catholic and devoted father, would never violate his faith and abandon his child. In time he accepted Crosetti's suicide, but still felt a certain dismay that he had never known Crosetti was "in that kind of pain" and apparently felt he could not tell Lewis about his problems. Stan Bolander comforted Lewis by saying that in giving up his prized vintage yo-yo as a gift to Lewis, Crosetti was in his own way saying goodbye.

He remained without a partner for a time until partnering with Mike Kellerman, who transferred into homicide from the arson unit at the start of Season 4. This partnership initially worked reasonably well, but also had its strain as Kellerman slid toward alcoholism and humiliation when he was falsely accused of having taken bribes while in his previous position. As Kellerman kept his problems less secret than Crosetti, Lewis was able to stop a potential suicide attempt. Lewis and Kellerman had earlier found themselves arguing with each other over a Nation of Islam group acting as a private security force in a Baltimore City housing project. During a Homicide investigation, the Muslims baited Kellerman with racial remarks and it didn't help him when Lewis agreed with the Muslims' presence in the projects as because of them, there were fewer Homicides in the projects. Lewis nonetheless forced the Muslims' leader to answer both him and Kellerman (the leader would only speak to Black Homicide Detectives about the identity of a murder suspect) during an attempt at turning the two against each other. When Kellerman and Lewis were finally able to snare drug kingpin Luther Mahoney for drug trafficking and murder, Lewis beat up Mahoney until the criminal grabbed Lewis' gun. However, Kellerman and Terri Stivers showed up in time to prevent Mahoney from killing Lewis, and Kellerman shot and killed Mahoney during an ambiguous standoff. Although Lewis initially approved of Kellerman's actions, he later decided they could no longer be partners.