North Charleston Police Officer Robert Anthony Way, known as Tony, was killed in the line of duty in the early morning hours of February 18, 1985. A U.S. Air Force veteran who had been with the department about one year, he responded to an alarm call at Rose’s Hideaway Bar on Rivers Avenue and pursued a fleeing suspect to the rear of the building. The suspect, lying in wait in a pre-planned ambush, fired and struck Officer Way on the right side; Officer Way returned fire and wounded the attacker twice in the lower back.

The assailant fired additional shots, one of which fatally struck Officer Way near his heart. Officer Way fired more rounds, striking the suspect in the abdomen; the suspect died at the scene minutes later and Officer Way died at the hospital shortly thereafter. Investigators concluded the attack was revenge against the North Charleston Police Department for an arrest at the same bar ten days earlier. Officer Way was survived by his wife and a son who was days shy of his second birthday.

Does anyone have memories of Officer Way or of Rose’s Hideaway from that time that could shed light on the case?