ANTWON MITCHELL

'Antwon Mitchell' is a fictional character from the FX television show ''The Shield'', portrayed by Anthony Anderson.

Contents

Character overview

Early life

Relationship with police

Attempt at immunity

Prison life

Character overview

Mitchell was a former drug lord who, having been released from prison after a lengthy sentence, tried to reinvent himself as an upstanding African-American community activist out to aid the Black citizens of Farmington. However, he had also secretly secured power as the most powerful drug boss in the district, leading a fictional gang called the One Niners.

Early life

Mitchell's childhood was not a pleasant one. He was an overweight loner who was too frightened to protect his young sister from their sexually-abusive father. His mother later shot and killed his father, earning herself a life sentence. While imprisoned, she was impregnated by a prison guard and bore Antwon's half-brother, Jason Porter.

Relationship with police

Mitchell had a longstanding feud with Captain Monica Rawling, who had been the officer who arrested him on the drug charges that had sent him to prison. The two squared off at a community meeting regarding the new implementation of Rawling's seizure policy. It was out of this clash that the events of the Fourth Season unfolded.
Detective Shane Vendrell, attempting to emulate his former mentor Vic Mackey, actively pursued a possible partnership with Mitchell. With Shane on Mitchell's payroll, he and his partner, Armando "Army" Renta helped Mitchell eliminate his rivals and ultimately rise to his status as head of the One Niners. However, not satisfied with simply paying cops do his dirty work, Antwon sought to dominate Shane and his partner. After being provoked several times by Shane, Mitchell's thugs attacked him and Army in a warehouse. With his foot on Shane's neck, Mitchell took the policemen's guns and used them to murder the eleven year old girl who had informed on his drug ring and caused him a great deal of money and heroin. The body was used to blackmail the two into murdering Vic, who Mitchell saw as the biggest threat to his drug business. However, instead of doing as he was told, Shane asked for Vic's help. After finding the body of the girl, using a hidden camera, they were able to catch footage of Antwon restating his offer of "a body for a body." This ultimately forced Antwon to plead guilty to the girl's murder and attempting to order the death of a police officer.

Attempt at immunity

After helping David Aceveda kill a prison inmate, Antwon tried to free himself from his sentence by using information regarding the inner workings of a Salvadoran drug cartel in order to get a DEA immunity deal without disclosing any information about the cop killings in his territory. However, the deal was ultimately voided when Antwon's nemesis, Captain Rawling, sacrificed her job by bringing down the Salvadorans herself, making sure that Mitchell never got his chance to leave prison.

Prison life

Since his imprisonment, Antwon has risen to a place of power within the prison, essentially running it. He also supported a revival of the fading One Niners gang and even made attempts to run the his drug ring from inside. He also made a deal with IAD Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh to give up information on the Strike Team in exchange for one thing, their incarceration at ''his'' prison. However, he made a separate deal with Vic Mackey to provide financial assistance for the One Niners in exchange for Curtis "Lem" Lemansky's protection in prison. The deal went through, but resulted unfavorably, only pulling in a small haul of cash. Combined with Kavanaugh's investigation of the prison system that put a cramp in Mitchell's personal comfort, Mitchell declared the deal off and vowed that he would have Lem murdered, no matter which prison he was sent to. This statement led Vic and the Strike Team to hide Lem in a trailer park. The heat brought on by IAD in response led to Lem's murder at the hands of Shane Vendrell. After Lem's death, Vic visited Antwon in prison, hoping that he was the one who ordered the hit on Lem. Antwon was proud of the fact that Vic blamed him for all the ills of the world, but admitted that he had nothing to do with the murder.