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A police officer stands motionless. On the ground lies a deceased young man, his life taken by the officer. The cop is black, and the boy is white. Swells of people emerge from their homes to examine the scene, and then the shaken officer brings his two-way radio to his mouth. "Shots fired," he exclaims. This sequence of events serves as the opening scene of the Fox miniseries "Shots Fired," created by Gina Prince-Bythewood ("The Secret Life of Bees") and her husband Reggie Rock Bythewood ("Beyond the Lights"). The 10-episode show premieres on Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET and explores two officer-involved shootings in fictional Gate Station, North Carolina, which likely alludes to the real-life Gate gas station in Jacksonville, Florida, where African-American Jordan Davis was shot and killed in 2012 by a civilian white male who thought the 17-year-old boy and his friends were playing their music too loudly. The first fictionalized cop shooting occurs in the show's intro. The second is a neglected homicide case involving a young black man and a white officer. All in all, the show explores weighty social issues such as police shootings and the often racialized tensions associated with them. Though the series delves into serious topics, there is a sport-centric thread running throughout it. Prince-Bythewood played basketball growing up and tries to fit athletic-based storylines into her productions whenever possible. "It's not a sports show at all," Prince-Bythewood said, "but it's really important to make sports and girls a normal thing." "Shots Fired" also reunites Sanaa Lathan ("Now You See Me 2"), who plays expert investigator Ashe Akino, and Prince-Bythewood. The duo previously collaborated on the iconic sports film "Love & Basketball" (2000), which Prince-Bythewood wrote and directed, while Lathan co-starred with Omar Epps. The two have not worked together in 17 years, their last project being HBO's "Disappearing Acts" (2000). "It's been a long time, but [we] fell right back into it," Prince-Bythewood said in a phone interview. Many of the leads in the series have a sports-related tie-in. Lathan's character has a daughter, Kai (Laila Lockhart Kraner), who is obsessed with Serena Williams. Viewers first meet Kai as she's decked out in soccer gear with a large poster of Williams affixed to her bedroom wall. Lieutenant Breeland (Stephen Moyer), a police officer in Gate Station, coaches football and his daughter is the kicker. Department of Justice prosecutor Preston Terry (Stephan James) has a brother in the NFL and was an elite baseball player before deciding to focus on law. "Some people [depict mothers and daughters] at the nail salon or crafting," said Prince-Bythewood. "Our mothers and daughters are playing soccer or wrestling together, which is something you certainly don't see." At the heart of the series is Lathan's Akino. Her character is hard-nosed, complicated and flawed. "Sanaa's character played sports [growing up], and she's tough," Prince-Bythewood said. "I want to make that OK. There's a point in the series where [Akino] is talking to her daughter and says that it's okay to be a badass and to be proud of your fearlessness. I love seeing these kinds of things." Even when sports are not the explicit focus, "Shots Fired" demands athleticism of many of its actors. There are scenes of people running from the police, of police officers running, and of Terry hitting baseballs during his off time. The cast members needed to prepare for those scenarios, so the first thing Prince-Bythewood did was set Lathan up to work with a track coach. "I told [Sanaa] flat-out, 'You're going to be running on this show, and you can't look whack,'" Prince-Bythewood said. "Athletics will always be a thread in my work."
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