On the evening of January 15, 1987, a quiet, middle-class neighborhood in Lorton, Virginia, was shattered by gunfire that would leave two men dead. The life of 27-year-old Virginia State Trooper Alexander McKie 'Al' Cochran, III, was cut tragically short when he responded to a violent domestic dispute unfolding near his own home.
Earlier that evening, off-duty Trooper Cochran had just returned from the grocery store and was unloading groceries inside his townhouse on Hagel Circle. An argument between Larry Lynn Gill, a 32-year-old construction worker, his wife Pamela, and her brother, Gregory B. Jividen, had spilled out into the open. As Pamela Gill and her brother attempted to leave, Gill emerged with a 12-gauge shotgun and shot Jividen in the back as he stood by his truck.
Hearing the gunshot and a woman's scream for an ambulance, Cochran did not hesitate. He ran upstairs to retrieve his service revolver and then rushed back outside towards his police cruiser to radio for help. As he reached the front of his vehicle, Gill, firing from a second-floor window of his townhouse, shot Cochran in the back and head. The trooper collapsed and died instantly. The rampage was not over. Army Sergeant Dennis R. Kief, 27, who also lived in the neighborhood, heard the commotion and ran outside to investigate. He, too, was met with a fatal shotgun blast from Gill.
Larry L. Gill was arrested at the scene and subsequently charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Trooper Cochran and Sergeant Kief, and one count of malicious wounding for the shooting of his brother-in-law. He was also charged with three counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony. Gill was convicted of the murders and wounding. Alexander Cochran, who had served with the Virginia State Police for two years and was a member of the Virginia Army National Guard, was remembered as a dedicated officer with dreams of flying helicopters for the state police.
