Officer Down--September 21, 1985 Traditional Cache
Vertighost: Since there has been no response by the cache owner within the time frame requested in the last reviewer note, I have archived this cache. Please note that caches archived for maintenance issues or lack of cache owner communication are not eligible to be unarchived.
Officer Down--September 21, 1985
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Sept. 21, 1985, the saddest day in the history of the Paris Police Department
Located in a roadside park between US 271 and Lake Crook. There are thorns at ground zero, put there is a clear path to the cache.
It was a beautiful Saturday morning. Dispatch got a call about 9 AM about an armed robbery at Braum's Ice Cream Store on Lamar Avenue. Two men in a light blue car had entered just as the store was opening claiming to want to apply for a job. Then they pulled out guns, forced the two employees into the freezer, took all the money in the till, and drove off.
As a description of the vehicle was going out, 23-year-old officer David Roberts pulled onto U.S. 271 just as a blue Oldsmobile Cutlass drove north. The car had been stolen several days earlier from the campus of Central State University in Edmond, Okla..
He radioed in that he was stopping a car fitting the description, which may or may not be the suspects. As an officer radioed back that help was in route, Patrick Rogers, 21, got out of the stopped vehicle--he had a gun in his waistband, covered by his shirt, as he walked towards the patrol car. Roberts was shot once through the windshield, then five more times at close range. The suspects then fled the scene.
After the suspects changed vehicles twice, a massive manhunt was organized. Shots were exchanged several times between law enforcement and the suspects. The suspects were apprehended as they attempted to escape across a soybean field.
A crowd of 100 to 200 people gathered outside of Lamar County Courthouse to watch as the suspects were brought to the jail. A Braum's bag was found Sunday night containing $427.11.
Three days after the shooting, Patrolman Roberts' funeral was held. It was standing room only, drawing a crowd of thousands. An estimated 400 law enforcement officers from all over Northeast Texas attended. Roberts was laid to rest in Evergreen Cemetery.
The two suspects were convicted: Patrick Rogers, 21, of capital murder sentenced to death by lethal injection; and Willis Cooper, 19, of aggravated robbery.
Patrolman David Roberts Memorial Drive is located east of US 271, very near where this crime was committed and southeast of the cache location.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Vf gung n xabgubyr? Be vf vg gur cevmr...
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