****SPOILERS*** Mark Sanger, Don Mitchell, while attending with his boss Chief Robert T. Ironside, Raymond Burr, the Annual Awards Luncheon at the Park Claybourne Hotel is gunned down in broad daylight and seriously wounded by an unknown assailant. It's first assumed by everyone that it was in fact Chief Ironside who was the gunman's,Fred Murdoc, intended target. Later it's determined, with a second failed attempt on Sanger's life, that Sanger was in fact the intended victim of Murdoc who was gunned down by the police during his escape attempt. With Sanger recovering from his gunshot wounds he's put under the microscope or third degree in what he can remember in whom he was involved with before he was shot who may have had it in for him.
It soon comes out that Sanger while filling up Ironside's custom made station wagon unknowingly saw a drug deal or operation in progress from the nearby filling station. With those involved in the drug operation not knowing if Sanger realized what was going on it was decided to whack him in case he did and would inform the police or his boss Ironside about it. The fact that Sanger had no idea of what was going on and was gunned down by those who ordered him shot thinking that he did brought the full weight of the SFPD and Chief Ironside on them.
Despite being greatly disturbed in what happened to his good friend as well as valet & driver Mark Sanger Chief Ironside seemed even more disturbed in that he not Sanger wasn't the gunman's intended victim. The fact that Ironside wasn't made him feel that his popularity among those he put behind bars in being the city of San Francisco's top lawman was waining a bit. It took Ironside a while to compose himself and get the job done in tracking down those who tried to have Sanger murdered by him sadly knowing at least in this case that he wasn't #1 on the hoodlums & mob bosses of San Francisco's hit parade.
It soon comes out that Sanger while filling up Ironside's custom made station wagon unknowingly saw a drug deal or operation in progress from the nearby filling station. With those involved in the drug operation not knowing if Sanger realized what was going on it was decided to whack him in case he did and would inform the police or his boss Ironside about it. The fact that Sanger had no idea of what was going on and was gunned down by those who ordered him shot thinking that he did brought the full weight of the SFPD and Chief Ironside on them.
Despite being greatly disturbed in what happened to his good friend as well as valet & driver Mark Sanger Chief Ironside seemed even more disturbed in that he not Sanger wasn't the gunman's intended victim. The fact that Ironside wasn't made him feel that his popularity among those he put behind bars in being the city of San Francisco's top lawman was waining a bit. It took Ironside a while to compose himself and get the job done in tracking down those who tried to have Sanger murdered by him sadly knowing at least in this case that he wasn't #1 on the hoodlums & mob bosses of San Francisco's hit parade.