Corporal Kenneth Jeffrey Johnson was 38 and a 12-year veteran of the South Carolina Highway Patrol when he was shot and killed while working a public safety checkpoint in Berkeley County on the early morning of July 7, 2002. Troopers had stopped a pickup on College Park Road; while an officer was issuing a ticket to the female driver for an open container, Johnson walked to the passenger side to identify the male passenger.

The passenger, later identified as 22-year-old Jesse Waylon Sapp, suddenly opened fire. A bullet struck Johnson in the abdomen below his vest. Other troopers returned fire, wounding Sapp and taking him into custody; the female driver, 20-year-old Kathryn Boles of Summerville, was arrested on a separate charge of possession of a stolen vehicle. Johnson left behind a wife and two children.

What details about the moments before the stop or about the passenger’s motive remain unclear to readers with information?