In the winter of 1979, the life of a dedicated Minneapolis police sergeant was irrevocably altered by a burst of gunfire that would ultimately prove fatal, though his death would not come for another seven years. On December 13, 1979, Sergeant David Ward Mack, a 43-year-old Caucasian male, was part of a team of undercover officers serving a warrant at a residence on Pillsbury Avenue South. In the ensuing moments, the man inside the house, Riley B.
Housley III, opened fire, striking Sergeant Mack multiple times.
The grievous injuries plunged the sergeant into a coma that would last for two years. When he finally emerged, he was left a quadriplegic, unable to speak and facing a daily battle with the devastating consequences of the shooting. For seven years, he endured, a testament to his will to live. However, the complications from his wounds were relentless, and on November 2, 1986, Sergeant David Ward Mack succumbed to the injuries he had sustained on that fateful December day.
Riley B. Housley III was initially convicted of first-degree aggravated assault in 1980 for the shooting of Sergeant Mack and another officer, Robert Skomra, who was also wounded. Housley maintained that he believed his home was being broken into and that he acted in self-defense, a claim that would eventually lead to the Minnesota Supreme Court overturning his conviction. As a result, Housley was never charged with the murder of Sergeant Mack.
In a strange and final chapter to this story, Riley B. Housley III himself died in February 2018. His death, caused by blunt force injuries, was ruled a homicide, adding another layer of tragedy and unanswered questions to a case that began with a violent encounter nearly four decades earlier.
