On a summer day in 1994, Lieutenant Coy N. Smith, a 61-year-old male officer with the Alabama Public Service Commission, was on duty, unaware that his path was about to cross with a dangerous fugitive. A veteran of 28 years, Lt. Smith was a seasoned officer dedicated to his role in law enforcement. His day took a fatal turn when he initiated a traffic stop in Montgomery, Alabama. The driver of the vehicle was a man already wanted for the murders of a police officer in Greenville, Alabama, and a sheriff's deputy in Pearl River County, Mississippi.
As Lieutenant Smith was relaying the vehicle's license plate number to dispatch, the suspect opened fire, striking the officer in the head. The brazen act cut short the life of a long-serving officer and intensified a multi-state manhunt. The suspect, however, would not face justice in a courtroom. Later that same day, surrounded by federal agents, the man who had murdered three law enforcement officers took his own life. The tragic and violent end to the chase brought a close to the immediate search for the suspect but left behind the profound loss of Lieutenant Coy N. Smith and the other officers he had slain.
