Officer William Franklin Mines

William Franklin Mines

Officer Mines and Sergeant Roy Wright were shot and killed after stopping a suspicious man behind a local business in the late night hours. The officers called the man over to their patrol car. Unbeknownst to the officers the man was wanted in Minnesota for murder. As the suspect talked to the officers, who were still seated in their patrol car, the suspect produced a handgun and opened fire, killing Officer Mines instantly. Sergeant Wright, who was wounded, exited the vehicle and was then shot execution style by the suspect. The officers were not found for several hours as they had not called in the stop.

As the suspect fled he nearly struck a delivery man, who wrote down the license plate in order to report him as a reckless driver. During the investigation the plate was traced to the suspect. Three days later he was apprehended in Inkster, Michigan, after he crashed the car he was driving into another car during a police chase. The driver of the other car, a 21 year-old man who was to be married the next day, was killed.

The suspect was returned to Virginia and sentenced to life. He died of liver cancer while still in prison on February 17, 2004, several days after an appeal for clemency was denied by the governor of Virginia.