Rene Sheppard

Det. Rene Sheppard
Det. Rene Sheppard
First appearance	September 25, 1998 (7x01, "La Familgia") (HLOTS)
Last appearance	May 21, 1999 (7x22, Forgive Us Our Trespasses) (HLOTS) February 13, 2000 Homicide: The Movie
Created by	Tom Fontana
Portrayed by	Michael Michele
Information
Gender	Female
Occupation	Homicide Detective Fugitive Squad Detective (formerly)
Title	Detective

Rene Sheppard is a fictional police detective of the Baltimore Police Department on Homicide: Life on the Street, played by Michael Michele.^[1] At 29, Sheppard first appeared in Season 7. Rene was Miss Anne Arundel County (beauty pageant queen) sometime prior to joining the Baltimore Police Department. She came into the Homicide Section from the Escape and Apprehension Section (Fugitive Squad) and was partnered with Meldrick Lewis until an arrest went bad; Sheppard was severely beaten, and her gun was stolen, causing the department to doubt her ability to do the job. At first fiercely protective of his partner, Lewis soon grew unable to trust her, leading to tension between the two and often resulting in Lewis and Sheppard's seeking other partners. After spending her recovery time behind a desk, Sheppard was allowed to be the primary on the "Internet Killer" case, and redeemed herself somewhat by leading the investigation that led to Internet Killer Luke Ryland's arrest. However, Sheppard later learned that Lewis was not the only cop in the Homicide unit who had concerns about her job performance: Stivers outright said that Sheppard went for her gun too early during the "I got beat down and my gun took" confrontation, and while Ballard was more sympathetic to Sheppard she also expressed some concerns to an angry Sheppard. In the penultimate series episode, Sheppard and Ballard found themselves working a case involving a murdered female gang-banger, and Sheppard was feeling some pressure to not call in one of the male detectives to help them. When they closed the case, Sheppard told Lewis (who had given her a rote "good job" comment) that she could do her job regardless of what he thought.

In the series finale, though, Lewis continued to be insulting to Sheppard--earning him a "you're an ass" comment from Bayliss, to which Lewis responded angrily about how a Homicide cop has to close off his emotions--but the reaction of a murdered woman's relative led him to turn a corner, and the final few scenes of the show had Lewis asking Sheppard to join him on a homicide call, which they worked without any problems.

The character also appeared in the Law & Order episode "Sideshow."

References