| “ | I did not hurt my son! You gonna arrest me? If not, get the hell out of my office! | „ |
| ~ Aaron Downing berating Detectives Lennie Briscoe and Rey Curtis. |
Aaron Downing is the main antagonist of the Law & Order episode "Flight". He is a narcissist who murders his own son after his marriage falls apart because he cannot conceive of the boy being able to survive without him.
He was portrayed by Dylan Baker, who also portrayed Bill Maplewood in Happiness, Henry Muller in Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Biff Simpson in Hunters, and Steven Wilkins in Trick 'r Treat.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Downing studied biology at Brown University, but he could not get into medical school or get a job as a scientist, so he found work as an insurance systems analyst. He married a woman named Paula, with whom he had a five-year-old son, Ryan. Downing was deeply dissatisfied with his life and career, however, believing that he had been somehow cheated out of the greater success and happiness he felt he deserved. He especially resented Paula, having settled when he married her.
He had an affair with a coworker, Theresa Copeland, which ruined his marriage. He decided to leave Paula, but he could not stand the thought of "giving up" Ryan, thinking of the boy as more his possession than his son. He then decided that Ryan was better off dead than living without him.
He talked Copeland into embezzling $450,000 from their employer so they could "start over" by moving to Fiji together, although he had no intention of including her in his new life; he used a variety of accounting tricks to make her believe they were only stealing $100,000, hiding the bulk of the money from her. Meanwhile, he bought a vial of VRSA, a deadly virus, from Algen, a chemical company with lax security reporting policies. That night, he injected the virus into Ryan's leg while he was sleeping.
"Flight"[]
When Ryan dies of VRSA poisoning while in school the next day, NYPD Homicide Detectives Lennie Briscoe and Rey Curtis investigate his death as a homicide and a potential act of terrorism. When a heroin addict dies soon afterward after shooting up with a syringe contaminated by VRSA, Briscoe and Curtis trace the needle to a trash can outside of Copeland's apartment building. They question her and find out about the affair, which leads Executive Assistant District Attorney Jack McCoy to suspect that Downing, not Copeland, poisoned Ryan.
The detectives find out that Downing had been in Copeland's apartment building with Ryan shortly before the boy's death, giving them enough probable cause to arrest him - just as he is leaving for the airport to fly to the Fiji Islands.
McCoy and Assistant District Attorney Abbie Carmichael charge Downing with Ryan's murder, but they are hard-pressed to find a motive. They consult with forensic psychiatrist Emil Skoda, who profiles Downing as a narcissist who feels cheated by life and thinks of his family as extensions of himself, and so would rather see his son dead than go through a life he sees as being filled with pain and disappointment. Paula confirms that Downing was having a midlife crisis and that they were both unhappy in their marriage; she also mentions that he had reacted to her possible pregnancy a few months earlier by saying that children were better off never being born.
McCoy and Carmichael try to prove conclusively that Downing bought the VRSA from Algen, but the company stonewalls them, afraid that they would be opening themselves to further lawsuits if they admitted that their bacteria killed Ryan. While Algen stalls, Downing's lawyer successfully petitions the trial judge to release Downing until the prosecution can make its case.
Eventually, however, McCoy and Carmichael get Algen to release the records of Downing's purchase by charging them with manslaughter in connection with Ryan's murder; the company decides that it would be cheaper to incur bad publicity about their recklessness than be blamed for a child's death. Knowing he will be arrested, Downing flees to a motel in New Jersey, where he hangs himself.
Trivia[]
- Downing is loosely based on Brian Stewart, a phlebotomist who infected his son with a strain of HIV.
External links[]
- Aaron Downing on the Law & Order Wiki
