On December 21, 1996, New York City Police Officer Charles A. Davis, 38, was working an off-duty security shift at a check-cashing store in East Elmhurst, Queens. As the business was preparing to open, he and the store owner were ambushed by armed assailants; both men were forced inside the establishment and Officer Davis was fatally shot. The owner survived multiple gunshot wounds. Davis was a nearly nine-year veteran of the NYPD and was survived by his wife and six-year-old daughter.

About a week after the killing three men, ages 19, 20 and 22, were arrested and charged with murder. The 19-year-old was identified as the shooter, was convicted on two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole; the other two defendants were also convicted for their roles. In 2021 the convictions of all three were overturned after it emerged prosecutors had withheld evidence that pointed to possible involvement by another group called the Speedstick gang, and the three men were released after serving more than twenty years.

Did anyone in East Elmhurst at the time remember unusual activity around the check-cashing store in late December 1996?