Officer William Franklin Mines

William Franklin Mines

Officer William Mines and Sergeant Roy Wright were shot and killed after stopping a suspicious man behind a shopping center in the 1200 block of Route 1 at about 4:00 am.

The officers called the man over to their patrol car. Unbeknownst to the officers the man had murdered a gas station attendant in New Jersey earlier in the morning. As the man talked to the officers, who were still seated in their patrol car, the he 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 subject. The subject then stole both officers' service revolvers and handcuffs before fleeing. 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 Wayne, 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, convicted of murder, and sentenced to life in prison. 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.