Terri Stivers is a fictional character in '' Homicide: Life on the Street''. She was played by actress Toni Lewis. Stivers first appears in Season 5 as a detective in the Baltimore Police Department's narcotics unit, frequently collaborating with the homicide detectives in an effort to bring down

drug kingpin A drug lord, drug baron, kingpin or narcotrafficker is a high-ranking crime boss who controls a sizable network of people involved in the illegal drug trade. Such figures are often difficult to bring to justice, as they are normally not directly ...

Luther Mahoney. After

Mike Kellerman Detective Michael Scott Kellerman is a fictional character on the television drama series '' Homicide: Life on the Street'' portrayed by Reed Diamond. He is a main character from seasons 4– 6 (1995–98). Biography Kellerman was born on July ...

kills Mahoney under questionable circumstances, the two of them and fellow detective

Meldrick Lewis Meldrick Lewis is a fictional character on the television series '' Homicide: Life on the Street'', played by Clark Johnson. The character is loosely based on Baltimore detective Donald Waltemeyer and appeared in the series for its entire run. Lewi ...

report the incident as a justified self-defense shooting. Stivers immediately expresses her unease about Kellerman's actions, while Lewis takes a more circuitous route in dealing with his own mixed emotions about the incident. In Season 6, she serves brief stints in the burglary and sex crime units before transferring to homicide. The shooting touches off a war between the Mahoney organization and the police department, resulting in multiple casualties on both sides before a civil war leaves all of the Mahoney leadership either dead or imprisoned. After Stivers admits to Giardello that the reports on Mahoney's death were not accurate, the truth about the shooting comes out and Giardello brokers a deal for Kellerman to resign immediately so that Lewis and Stivers will not be fired for submitting false reports. Stivers remains in the homicide unit, but when she encounters Kellerman (now a

private investigator A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI and informally called a private eye), a private detective, or inquiry agent is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private investigators of ...

) in Season 7, she criticizes him for the effect his actions have had on the department. She also expresses her dislike of new detective Rene Sheppard's inability to control the streets and forms a friendship with Laura Ballard, a more competent member of the unit who had previously served as a homicide detective in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

. Her maternal grandmother was

Trinidadian Trinidadians and Tobagonians, colloquially known as Trinis or Trinbagonians, are the people who are identified with the country of Trinidad and Tobago. The country is home to people of many different national, ethnic and religious origins. As a ...

. She immigrated to the United States when she was a girl, went to college and became a teacher.

References

Homicide: Life on the Street characters Fictional Baltimore Police Department detectives Fictional African-American people Television characters introduced in 1996 {{tv-char-stub