On the morning of Friday, March 27, 1981, Montgomery County Police Officer Philip Carl Metz, 33, was beginning his shift when he and two store employees entered a W. Bell and Co. Catalog store in White Oak to perform an interior check after an alarm. Shortly after 7:00 a.m., as the three men approached the manager’s office, a gunman lying in wait shot Officer Metz in the head as he entered.

A second assailant then shot David Myers and assistant manager Douglas Cummins in the chest, dragged Cummins into the office, beat him with pistols and forced him to open the safe. The robbers took cash and checks, handcuffed Cummins to a filing cabinet and fled; despite severe injuries he freed himself and called for help at 7:45 a.m. Officer Metz and David Myers were pronounced dead at the scene. The investigation led to arrests and prosecutions; James Arthur Calhoun was identified at trial as the shooter of Officer Metz and in November 1981 a Montgomery County jury convicted him of Metz’s murder and imposed a death sentence.

Does anyone have memories of the White Oak store or the morning of March 27, 1981 that could shed more light on this case?