Cheektowaga Police Officer David J. Tolsma was killed in the line of duty in the early morning hours of October 20, 1977. The 32-year-old U.S. Navy veteran and six-year member of the department was responding to a robbery in progress at a Holiday Inn on Genesee Street when he was shot and killed.

The shooter was a 23-year-old escapee who had been on the run for three days. A massive manhunt led to his capture 13 hours after the killing. He and a 25-year-old accomplice were tried and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for Officer Tolsma’s murder.

Tolsma was a married father of a son and a daughter; his daughter was seven when she was told her father would not be coming home.