Clockers

In a Brooklyn housing project, a group of clockers — street-level drug dealers — work for Rodney Little, a local drug lord. Rodney orders Ronald "Strike" Dunham, one of his lead clockers, to kill Darryl Adams, another dealer who has been stealing from him. Strike is reluctant to carry out the killing and asks his brother Victor if he knows someone who could kill Adams.
Later, Homicide detectives Rocco Klein and Larry Mazilli are called to the scene of Adams' murder and learn that Victor has confessed to killing him. Upon interrogation, Victor tells Rocco that he shot Adams in self-defense. Rocco finds holes in this story and examines Victor's background, where he finds that Victor cares for his family, is a responsible employee and has no criminal record, leading Rocco to believe that Victor is covering for his younger brother.
Rodney discusses Darryl's death with Strike. Later, Rodney tells Strike a story of a younger Rodney and Errol, where Errol threatened Rodney at gunpoint to kill a dealer, which he did. Back in the present, he tells Strike the reason Errol forced him at gunpoint to do so was so that Errol could hold something over him if he ever decided to tell on Errol, which was why he told Strike to kill Darryl Adams. Strike and Rodney have a falling-out after Rodney denies telling Strike to kill Darryl.
Rocco pressures Strike, but Victor sticks to his story, so Rocco convinces Rodney that Strike has confessed and informed on Rodney's drug ring. Rocco arrests Rodney and then implicates Strike in front of his crew. Strike tries to play it off and deny that he was involved in Rodney's arrest, but his crew begins to turn on Strike, leading to them labeling him a snitch. Rodney, calling Errol to notify him that he is in jail, puts a hit out on Strike. Strike then gets together some money and decides to leave town.
As Strike leaves his apartment, he sees Errol camped outside of his car with a gun. Strike deduces that Errol is there to kill him and hides. A younger boy who admires Strike, Tyrone, rides up to Errol on a bike and shoots him dead with Strike's gun. Later, Tyrone is taken into custody. With Rocco, Tyrone's mother and Andre listening, Tyrone confesses that he got the gun from Strike. Andre storms out of the interrogation room and proceeds to look for Strike.
Andre angrily beats Strike in front of the whole project, and with a gun threatens the onlooking bystanders to stay back. As Andre threatens to kill Strike if he ever talks to or even looks at the young boy again, Rodney pulls up, which leads to Strike jumping in his own car and driving to the precinct, with Rodney following. Strike runs into Rocco, who now has an arrest warrant for Strike, and runs into the precinct just as Rodney arrives.
Rocco tries to intimidate Strike into confessing to the murder, but he loses his composure when Strike continues to change his story. When Rocco grabs Strike and throws him against the wall, Strike's mother walks in with Mazilli and Victor's wife. She advises Rocco that Victor confessed to the murder immediately when he got home, and how Victor was physically unable to leave his bed. Strike asks his mom what happened to the bail money he gave Victor's wife, which leads to Strike's mother angrily throwing the money in Strike's face.
Meanwhile, Rodney proceeds to damage Strike's car, going as far as breaking the windows, damaging the doors and urinating in the car. Left with no other options and unable to go home, Strike asks Rocco to drive him to Penn Station.
In a car, Rocco threatens to arrest Strike, then arrest Rodney on the same charges and ensure that Rodney and Strike share a cell and a bed in prison. Strike leaves town by train. While Tyrone is playing inside his apartment with the train set that Strike gave him, Rocco and Mazilli respond to the homicide of clocker Scientific. Victor is released from custody.