On the evening of February 24, 1993, Virginia State Police Trooper II José M. Cavazos, a 50-year-old Caucasian male, was conducting a routine traffic stop on an exit ramp from southbound I-95 in Dale City, Virginia. A veteran of the U.S. Army who had served in the 1991 Gulf War and had been with the Virginia State Police for 12 years, Trooper Cavazos was unaware that this encounter would be his last. As he approached the vehicle he had pulled over, the passenger suddenly opened fire with a 9mm handgun. Trooper Cavazos was struck six times and did not have the chance to draw his own weapon.
The ensuing investigation quickly led to the identification and arrest of two suspects: Lonnie Weeks Jr. and Louis Jefferson Dukes Jr. Weeks was identified as the shooter and faced charges of capital murder, use of a handgun in the commission of a felony, and auto larceny. Dukes was charged with first-degree murder, along with similar weapons and theft charges. During a preliminary hearing, Weeks admitted to shooting Trooper Cavazos.
The legal proceedings culminated in a capital murder conviction for Lonnie Weeks Jr., and he was subsequently sentenced to death. After years of appeals, the sentence was carried out, and Weeks was executed on March 16, 2000. In a lasting tribute to the fallen officer, the overpass at the Dale City interchange where he was killed was officially named in his honor in January 1998. Trooper Cavazos was survived by his wife, son, and daughter.
