James Whittington was a 42-year-old off-duty NYPD officer of Panamanian heritage when he was killed on October 31, 1982. He had been getting a haircut in a Brooklyn barbershop when he saw a man with a gun arguing with a woman outside and went to intervene. The armed man fled; Whittington chased in his car and caught up with him on Dumont Avenue, near a housing development. A struggle followed in which the suspect, identified as 24-year-old Martin Mitchell, gained control of Whittington’s .38 caliber service handgun and fired multiple times.

Whittington was struck in the face and shoulder and was later taken to Brookdale Hospital, where he died. He had served nine years with the department and was survived by a wife and two daughters. Mitchell was later convicted of manslaughter on January 5, 1984, and received a 12-to-25-year sentence; he was also sentenced in a separate case for the attempted murder of a Queens detective.

Was anyone in the Dumont Avenue area that night able to see or hear what happened during the struggle?