McLean, VA (July 29, 2024) - Nearly 30 years ago, on November 22, 1994, a street-tough named Bennie Lee Lawson walked into the cold case squad office at Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police headquarters and, without saying a word, opened fire. More than 40 shots were exchanged between Lawson and the four officers in the room. FBI Special Agents Martha Dixon Martinez and Mike Miller, and a no nonsense D.C. homicide detective named Henry “Hank” Daly were killed. Another FBI Special Agent, John Kuchta, was shot five times, but somehow managed to miraculously survive. It turned out that Lawson had been labeled a snitch by his fellow gang members and he simply wanted to clear his name. When his job was done, Lawson pointed a gun at his head and pulled the trigger.

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McLean, VA (July 16, 2024) - The date was March 27, 1985. Patrolman Thomas Strunk of the Billerica (MA) Police Department was off duty and running some errands with his wife, Nancy, and their three young sons. They were on their way home when Tom spotted a car ahead of them swerving all over the road. Suspecting that the driver was drunk and posed a serious threat to others on the roadway, Tom pulled the driver over. When Tom approached the man’s car and told the driver to step out of his vehicle, the man immediately tried to flee. Tom reached into the car to shut the engine off and take away the keys. But the man rolled up his window, trapping Tom’s arm. With Tom’s wife and sons watching in horror, the man then sped off, dragging the three-year police veteran alongside at speeds reaching 55 miles per hour and then slamming him into a pole. Tom died less than an hour later. Nancy and her sons were left to cling to the memories of a wonderful husband and father—a man who died doing the job he loved.

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McLean, VA (July 17, 2024) - On February 7, 1985, the unthinkable happened. After leaving the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Guadalajara Resident Office in Mexico to meet his wife for lunch, DEA Special Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena was kidnapped, tortured and brutally murdered. The heinous criminals behind his death were the same Mexican drug lords he was tenaciously working to identify and bring to justice. While the drug traffickers thought they had eliminated a tough obstacle in their path of crime and violence, they were terribly mistaken. Kiki Camarena’s murder galvanized law enforcement’s resolve to fight and win the drug war. They pledged never to give in to threats and intimidation. And they made a pledge never to forget Kiki Camarena.

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McLean, VA (July 9, 2024) - October 23, 2002, was supposed to be Virginia State Trooper Mark Cosslett’s day off. But two serial snipers had been terrorizing the Washington, DC area. They had already killed 10 innocent people and seriously wounded three others. They had issued a chilling threat, saying, “Your children are not safe anywhere at any time.” Trooper Cosslett, the father of two young children, was not about to rest for even a moment. Around 5:30 pm that evening, he was patrolling the highway on his motorcycle when he received a call that shots had been fired. No doubt thinking the worst—that the serial snipers had struck again—Trooper Cosslett immediately responded, riding his motorcycle along the shoulder of I-95, near Springfield, Virginia. Suddenly, a tow truck veered into his path and Trooper Cosslett was killed.

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McLean, VA (July 2, 2024) - In 1789, President George Washington appointed Robert Forsyth to be one of our nation’s original 13 U.S. Marshals. Marshal Forsyth, a Revolutionary War hero, was put in charge of what was then the Republic of Georgia. On January 11, 1794, while serving court papers in a civil suit, he was shot and killed. His killer, Beverly Allen, escaped twice after being convicted of the crime and was never recaptured. Robert Forsyth is one of more than 24,000 names now inscribed on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C. He is also the first federal law enforcement officer ever to die in the line of duty.

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McLean, VA (June 25, 2024) - Tulsa (OK) Police Officer Harry Aurandt was mortally wounded on December 19, 1921, when he and Chief Detective Ike Wilkinson were shot in an ambush attack while investigating a suspicious vehicle. He left behind a three-year-old son who went on to become one of the most beloved figures in all of America. The son was named Paul Harvey Aurandt but, of course, we all know him simply as Paul Harvey—the most popular broadcaster in the history of American radio.

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McLean, VA (June 18, 2024) - Some of our nation’s most heinous criminals have been made famous and, in some cases, almost likable by pop culture. One of them was a cold-blooded cop killer by the name of William Bonney (aka, “Billy the Kid”). He died in 1881 at the young age of 21, but during his short reign of terror he shot and killed six lawmen. Shockingly, in 2010, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson actually considered granting a pardon to Bonney for the 1878 murder of Lincoln County (NM) Sheriff William Brady. The public favored the idea, but saner minds prevailed and the pardon was not granted. The five other law enforcement officers killed by Bonney included: Lincoln County Deputies George Hindman, Robert W. Beckwith, James Carlysle and James W. Bell; and U.S. Marshal Robert Olinger.

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One of the 72 law enforcement officers who died on 9/11, the deadliest day in law enforcement history, was Fred Morrone, Superintendent of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department. When word reached him moments after terrorists flew a jetliner into the World Trade Center, Superintendent Morrone left his Jersey City (NJ) office and rushed through the Holland Tunnel to lead the rescue effort. His wife and son were watching the horrors of 9/11 unfold on television. “Before the second building fell, I knew and my mom knew he was gone,” Greg Morrone said of his father.

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In 1934, FBI Inspector Samuel P. Cowley was dispatched from headquarters to the mid-west to head up the Bureau’s anti-gangster effort. Soon after, legendary gangsters “Pretty Boy” Floyd and John Dillinger were killed by FBI Agents. And then, on November 27, 1934, Inspector Cowley and FBI Special Agent Herman Hollis got word of the whereabouts of another notorious criminal, “Baby Face” Nelson. They spotted him in his vehicle and a running gun battle took place. Special Agent Hollis was killed during the shootout and Inspector Cowley was mortally wounded. He would die the next day. But before going down, they shot “Baby Face” Nelson 17 times and he would soon die. Sam Cowley’s mission to end the reign of terror committed by some of our nation’s most ruthless gangsters was done.

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On March 26, 1916, Federal Correctional Officer Andrew Turner was stabbed to death by an inmate at the Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in Kansas. His killer, Robert Stroud, was sentenced to hang. However, President Woodrow Wilson commuted his sentence to life imprisonment. Stroud went on to live nearly another 50 years in the Federal prison system and developed a fascination with birds. Shortly before his death in 1963, Stroud was immortalized in film as the “Birdman of Alcatraz.”

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