Charles Brian Stafford was 28 and a Miami Springs Police Department officer when he was killed on June 11, 1991. While conducting a traffic stop on a white Cadillac he suspected was stolen near LeJeune Road and NW 36th Street, Stafford pursued and stopped the vehicle near NW 27th Avenue and the State Road 112 Expressway. As he approached the car he was shot twice, once in the neck and once in the left shoulder, and died from his wounds.

The suspect, Merrit Alonzo Sims, was apprehended soon after. He was convicted of first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer, armed robbery, and unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. After appeals, the Florida Supreme Court ordered a new trial; later developments included a plea to second-degree murder of a law enforcement officer and a 25-year sentence effective June 2011. Stafford was the first and only Miami Springs officer killed in the line of duty. Stafford Park was renamed in his honor and a memorial plaque was placed at the police department’s main entrance.

Did anyone in the Miami Springs area have contact with Officer Stafford or remember the traffic stop that night?