George Stefan DeSalvia, a 29-year-old Orlando Police Department officer, was shot and killed on February 3, 2000 while assisting a colleague during a traffic stop on John Young Parkway in Orlando, Florida. The second officer had arrested one vehicle occupant on an outstanding warrant; as the officers tried to remove the driver, the driver produced a .40 caliber Glock and shot Officer DeSalvia in the head. The shooter also fired at the second officer, striking him multiple times and leaving him critically injured and paralyzed. Neither officer was able to return fire before the suspect fled.

A massive manhunt involving several hundred officers ended a few hours later when the shooter, then 21, was found hiding in an abandoned house and arrested; a third occupant of the vehicle was also arrested. The shooter was later convicted of first-degree murder of a police officer and, on October 17, 2001, sentenced to life without parole. DeSalvia had been with the department eight months and left behind a wife and three young children. A street by the police communications and training center was renamed George DeSalvia Way in 2012.

Are there memories or details from that night or from Officer DeSalvia’s service that readers can share?