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Character Flag - American Male LAPD Badge LAPD SWAT Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 Season 4 Season 5 Season 6


"We’re a team. We trust each other with our lives. That’s what makes us SWAT."

Daniel "Hondo" Harrelson Jr. is the main protagonist of S.W.A.T. and leader of the 20-Squad Special Weapons And Tactics (S.W.A.T.) Team of the Los Angeles Police Department (L.A.P.D.).

He's the title character portrayed by American actor, producer and former ''Criminal Minds'' star Shemar Moore.

Biography[]

A native of South Los Angeles, Daniel Harrelson was born to Daniel Harrelson, Sr. and Charice Harrelson; he also has a sister, Winnie. When he was a kid, his father left the family after falling in love with another woman and moved to Oakland, California, where he eventually had another daughter, Brianna. Hondo and his dad remained in touch.

As a kid, Hondo and two of his best friends Leroy Henderson (portrayed by Michael Beach) and Darryl, ran with a gang, but after Darryl's death, Hondo went to high school and eventually joined the force.

A few months before Hondo graduated, he and his father witnessed the 1992 Los Angelos riots. While trying to get home safety, Hondo and Sr saw two black rioters pull a white man from his car and start attacking him. Despite Sr. attempts to keep Hondo in the car, Hondo jumped out the car and ran to intervene. This forced Sr. to also leave his car and help his son. They were able to stop the beating and get the man to the hospital where he was saved. Hondo was left in awe that he and Sr. managed to save someone's life. It's heavily implied that this helped influence his eventual path to the police force.

After high school, Hondo enlisted in the United States Marine Corps (USMC). He served four years (1994 to 1998) with the 1st Battalion, 9th Marines (1/9th Marines) out of Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton and deployed to Somalia. Upon leaving the Marines, Hondo joined the Los Angeles Police Department (L.A.P.D.).

Hondo began his Los Angeles Police Department (L.A.P.D.) career as a patrol officer with the 77th Street Area. He served as a patrolman for six years before becoming a member of the Special Weapons And Tactics (S.W.A.T.) Team

S.W.A.T stands for Special Weapons And Tactics. By 2016, he was serving as a Senior Lead Officer on Sergeant Buck Spivey's (Louis Ferreira) Special Weapons And Tactics (S.W.A.T.) Team. He knows everyone in the neighborhood and treats them all with respect, which is why some of the usually police-distrusting South L.A. residents sometimes trust him with information pertinent to his cases. It is around this time that he had gone on his first date with Elle Trask who was an FBI Agent before her promotion to the District of Columbia. They later broke up the relationship after finding the long-distance scenario to be too complicated which Hondo mentioned that he didn't end it too well.

In 2017, Hondo was unexpectedly promoted to Team Leader after Buck was fired for accidentally shooting an unarmed black teenager during a shootout. Senior team member Sergeant David Kay (Jay Harrington), who was next in the hierarchy after Buck, was overlooked in a blatant attempt to ease the tensions between the community and the Los Angeles Police Department (L.A.P.D.)

Four months prior to the series, Hondo began a surreptitious romantic relationship with Captain Jessica Cortez (Stephanie Sigman), which, while frowned upon, is not expressly forbidden by Los Angeles Police Department (L.A.P.D.) policy. However, after his promotion to Team Leader, which put him directly under her command, the two struggle to keep their relationship secret. Hondo ultimately breaks up with her after they were caught by Commissioner Michael Plank (Peter Facinelli) in order to protect her career. He later starts a relationship with Nia Wells (Nikiva Dionne a Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney and recent divorcée, but the relationship is not serious and does not hold long after he told her that he had threatened to come after a man who he accused of drugging his younger half-sister, Briana, and possibly try to take advantage of her one night at a nightclub which was one of the reasons Nia decided to break oeers.

Nichelle Carmichael[]

Nichelle and Hondo meet in season 3. Soon, they feel attracted to each other and start a romantic relationship. Nichelle runs a youth center in South L. A. and is committed to supporting the children and teenagers who come there, wanting to motivate them towards better lives. Hondo and Nichelle break up eventually, due to Hondo's emotional and temporal unavailability due to his work. However, they get closer again after some time apart and become friends. Nichelle encourages Hondo to open up more and talk about his emotions, preventing that they wear him down. In season 5 they make up with each other and build a strong relationship. They also try to adopt a baby, but the birth mother changes her mind after the baby was born. They then decide to start a family. In season 6, Nichelle reveals she is pregnant, and her and Hondo have a daughter, Vivian. At the end of season 6, he and Nichelle get engaged after baptizing Vivian.

David "Deacon" Kay[]

Hondo has a different relationship with Deacon than with the rest of his team. Deacon is his second in command and was supposed to be team leader after Buck instead of Hondo. Being openly overlooked gnaws at Deacon for some time, even though he tries not to let on about it. In season 1, ep. 21 ("Hunted"), Hondo and Deacon have to escape from a group of shooters through a wild area and during that they get into a fight about Deacon's resentment, eventually managing to put it aside. Hondo respects Deacon and often asks for his opinion about leadership decisions, which shows that Hondo sees Deacon is able to lead a team.

20-David Special Weapons And Tactics (S.W.A.T.) Team[]

Hondo and the members of the Special Weapons and Tactics (S.W.A.T.) team have a good relationship with each other. He keeps a special eye on the team youngsters, particularly Street and Chris. In the first two seasons, Hondo and Street get into disagreements about Street's impulsiveness and reckless attitudes and about Street's mother, which culminates in Hondo kicking Street off of the Special Weapons and Tactics (S.W.A.T.) Team. However, after some time, Street apologizes for his behavior and Hondo helps to get him into the Special Weapons and Tactics (S.W.A.T.) academy, thus offering Street a second chance. When it comes to Chris, Hondo relies on her to do a good job. He respects and honors her skills and treats her no different than the other team members, unlike other Special Weapons and Tactics (S.W.A.T.) members who make jokes about her being the only woman. Hondo's relationship with Luca and Tan is not particularly highlighted, but it is clear that they have a very good friendship. Hondo is an understanding and supportive team leader but is also well able to tell them off strongly. It is shown that the team members act slightly different with Hondo as their boss around than when they are alone, but in general they have a very amicable and honest policy in their entire team.

Robert "Bob" Hicks[]

Hondo and Hicks don't have a good relationship at first, as the former only sees him as someone who "covered his ass" by firing Buck and the latter doesn't see him as a leader for a SWAT team, but during Radical, Hicks reveals that it was Buck who wanted to be fired and that he tried to talk him out of it. After this the relationship between them improves and they are seen supporting each other to the point that in Next of Kin Hondo declares to Lynch that if Hicks doesn't stay Hondo will leave and go to the Times to talk about the real problems of the police.

Appearances[]

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • The name "Hondo" might be a nod to one of the last 3 high stress police academies in California, Rio Hondo Police Academy.
  • This series marks Shemar Moore's fourth consecutive leading role on a network television series following The Young and the Restless, Birds of Prey and Criminal Minds.
  • Shemar Moore also serves as executive-producer on the series.
  • In Cuchillo, it is implied that Hondo has a fear of snakes.
  • In Octane, Hondo reveals that he loves math and always preferred it over English.
  • He did with Chris a training experience with the SEALs over in Coronado.
  • As a SWAT officer, Hondo drives a 2015 Dodge Charger Pursuit and carries a Kimber Custom TLE II in .45 ACP as his duty weapon.
  • As of S2 E23, he has 15 years of police experience (3 Silver Service Stripes).
  • In S4 E10 & S7 E4, it's said that he was trained as a combat medic. The USMC doesn't have medics. Medic is provided by the USN and are called Corpsmen.
  • In Pilot, Hondo reveals to Raymont Harris first kiss with a girl was called, Yvonne Thomas.
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