Deputy Sheriff Richard B. Hammack, 31, was killed on May 11, 1992, while serving a high-risk search warrant at a mobile home on Gazelle Drive in Palmdale, California. He was part of an investigation into amphetamine distribution. During the operation the suspect, John White, opened fire through the mobile home’s walls; Hammack, who was not wearing a bulletproof vest, was struck in the neck, face, and upper body by rifle fire as he ran toward the gunfire to assist wounded colleagues. All bullets that hit Hammack were later determined to have been fired from White’s rifle. A gun battle followed and John White was killed by deputies returning fire.

Murder charges against White’s common-law wife, Dell Nickos, were later dropped; she still faced felony charges related to the shootings and to methamphetamine found in the mobile home. Hammack had served with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for seven and a half years and had planned to marry his girlfriend, Tammy Zeiner, in June. His death was the first line-of-duty killing of an Antelope Valley deputy since 1920.

Did anyone in the area know Deputy Hammack or remember the operation on Gazelle Drive?