Sergeant James E. Richardson, Jr. was a 10-year veteran of the Atlanta Police Department and a U.S. Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War. On July 19, 1980, while working undercover at the intersection of McDaniel and Peters Streets, he pulled over a car after seeing two men harass a female gas station attendant. After speaking with the driver and returning to his unmarked vehicle to run a license check, the stopped car’s passenger emerged and opened fire, fatally wounding the sergeant. Patrons of a nearby restaurant witnessed the shooting.

Investigators later learned the assailants’ vehicle had been stolen from a couple the men had abducted and robbed; the couple escaped after shots were fired at them. The shooter’s identity was uncovered during the investigation, he was arrested, tried, convicted for Sergeant Richardson’s murder, and sentenced to life in prison. Sergeant Richardson was survived by his wife and daughter.