Why did Jackson leave The Rookie? Titus Makin Jr. never even filmed his character's final scene
Officer Jackson West was there from the very first episode of The Rookie in 2018 — one of the three original rookies alongside Nathan Fillion's John Nolan. Then season 4 opened on 26 September 2021, and within minutes he was dead.
If that death felt strangely distant, there's a reason. The man playing him wasn't in it.
The death that happened off camera
In the season 3 finale, "Threshold", Jackson and Angela Lopez are kidnapped from Angela's wedding by men working for drug lord La Fiera. The season 4 premiere, "Life and Death", reveals his fate through grainy security- camera footage: Jackson resists being loaded into an SUV and is shot in the back and killed.
His face is never shown. That's because Titus Makin Jr. didn't return to film it — a body double stepped in, which is why Jackson is shot from behind rather than given a proper farewell scene.
Why he didn't come back
Makin never gave exit interviews, so there's no official statement from him about leaving. But his earlier comments fill in the picture. He told Entertainment Weekly in 2021 that he'd seriously considered quitting in 2020, after the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor left him conflicted about playing a Black police officer on a network cop show.
He stayed for season 3 after conversations with showrunner Alexi Hawley, as the series took on storylines about racist policing — including Jackson standing up to his training officer Doug Stanton.
After season 3 wrapped, he was done. Hawley confirmed as much to TVLine in September 2021:
"Titus was not coming back to the show," Hawley said, adding that the writers had to do their best to honour a character who'd been part of the series from the start.
Hawley also noted that, given how the season 3 finale had set things up, there was no way to tell the story without addressing Jackson head-on.
How the show honoured him
The premiere leaned into grief rather than spectacle — and in the same episode, Angela named her newborn son Jackson. As for Makin, he's kept busy on his own terms:
- Music — he records and performs as soul/funk artist Butterfly Ali.
- On the Come Up (2022) — a supporting role as Trey in the hip-hop drama.
- Sins of the Bride (2024) — a lead in the TV thriller.
For the record: Makin played Jackson West for 54 episodes across three seasons. The character got one of the most talked-about deaths in the show's run — filmed without him.