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| “ | People should manage their own urges. What if they can't? They should be punished. |
„ |
| ~ Pettigrew revealing his rigid moral code to justify his own pedophilia to a shrink. |
Jeremy Pettigrew is the main antagonist of the Chicago P.D. episode "Army of One". He is a pedophile who targets other sexual predators out of his own self-loathing.
He was portrayed by David Aaron Baker.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Pettigrew was raised in foster care, where he was physically and sexually abused by several different caretakers. He taught himself to fight in order to survive the pain, but the abuse warped his sexuality to the point that he began preying on children himself, even though he knew it was wrong.
As an adult, he got a job in Detroit as a youth hockey coach and took one of his players, a young boy named Joshua, under his wing, bonding with him over their shared experiences as foster children. His pedophilic urges emerged, however, and he eventually sexually abused Joshua before killing him to stop him from telling.
A police investigation was conducted, with the lead detective on the case suspecting that Pettigrew had been molesting Joshua and killed him to keep him quiet. There was not enough evidence to connect him to the murder, however, so the case eventually went cold.
Pettigrew, meanwhile, moved to Chicago, where he started working as a contractor - and continued to molest young boys. He later discovered a site called "Perv Hunters", in which sex offenders were exposed to the public. Pettigrew used these men as surrogates for his own self-loathing by kidnapping, torturing, and murdering them; he would stalk and kidnap them after tasering them, tie them up, beat and torture them while recording their screams of pain on a pre-paid cell phone, and finally set them on fire. He would then write the word "pedophile" on the wall in his victims' blood and upload the video to the Internet, knowing the police would see it.
"Army of One"[]
His first victim was Elijah Hendricks, whose murder caught the attention of the Chicago Police Department's Intelligence Unit. Hendricks' murder caused Intelligence into many suspects but most were cleared and notified the cops of Perv Hunters site. They warned another sex offender, Alan Metcalf, of the danger but he refused a protection detail, although he directed the cops to Perv Hunters webmaster Craig Gorman.
However, Gorman is proven innocent when a video of Metcalf suffering the same fate as Hendricks is uploaded to the Internet; Gorman could not have done it because he was in police custody at the time. Gorman agrees to help the unit, when reminded that because he admitted to uploading the videos, he inspired someone to violence, and he was an indirect accessory. Gorman helped in setting up a sting operation by creating a video "exposing" an undercover Det. Alvin Olinsky as a sexual predator.
Pettigrew takes the bait and goes at Olinsky's house intent on killing him, only to be arrested by the rest of the unit. He is brought in and tries to deny the allegations, stating he was merely there for a job. His name is run through the system, and they discover he was a person of interest in the rape and murder of a child in Detroit. Detective Erin Lindsay brings in forensic psychiatrist Dr. Lonnie Richardson to profile Pettigrew. Richardson asks Pettigrew if he was sexually abused as a child, something he vehemently denies. Richardson notices scars on Pettigrew's wrists, which Pettigrew claims are from an accident. He tells Richardson that that men like Hendricks and Metcalf need to be punished if they cannot control their urges.
Afterwards, Richardson tells Intelligence that Pettigrew is a self-loathing pedophile who was likely sexually abused as a child himself, and that the scars on his wrists are from a suicide attempt. She declared he began killing because he has recently sexually abused a child and is trying to cleanse his conscience by going after other child molesters, thus symbolically destroying something in himself that he hates. Intelligence search his house and found a child's backpack and underwear, confirming their suspicions. Lindsay confronts Pettigrew, who tries to deny the allegation; Lindsay swears that he's going to pay, however.
The unit then investigates his activities over the last few days and discovers that he had recently purchased a disposable cell phone, and that the clerk at the store where he bought it had described him as creepy and had seen a young boy in his truck. Intelligence soon identifies the boy as Derek Robbins, who had recently been reported missing by his mother. Voight asks Derek's mother if she had ever seen Pettigrew, though she is unsure until calming herself and recalling that she did see him before because he was looking for work.
Lindsay goes back to interrogate Pettigrew, who tries to deny everything. Angered and disgusted, Lindsay hits Pettigrew in the head with her service revolver while demanding that he admit what he did, refusing Upton's request to stop. She pressures Pettigrew into talking and he bursts into tears and confesses to the murders, as well as to sexually abusing Derek, and tells her where he had left the boy. Lindsay then hits him in the head once again, knocking him unconscious. Chief Lugo, who had been notified that Intelligence had a suspect for the Detroit murder, walks in and finds Pettigrew slouched over before Lindsay reveals the boy's location. Lugo orders the detectives - except for Lindsay and Upton - to go to the location Pettigrew provided. Intelligence finds Derek, but they are too late; he has been dead for hours.
Pettigrew is ultimately imprisoned for the rest of his life for child sexual abuse, kidnapping, and serial murder.
Victims: 4[]
Joshua: (Child): Molested and then killed in an unspecified manner by Jeremy Pettigrew: Mentioned.
Elijah Hendricks: (Wrongfully Convicted Sex Offender): Tied to a chair and then burned alive by Jeremy Pettigrew.
Alan Metcalf: (Convicted Pedophile): Tied to a chair and then burned alive by Jeremy Pettigrew.
Derek Robbins: (Child): Died from a lack of oxygen after being stuck inside the trunk of a car by Jeremy Pettigrew.
External links[]
- Jeremy Pettigrew on the Chicago P.D. Wiki
