On May 16, 1979, Patrolman Thomas Rowry Jr., a member of the Union Point Police Department, was shot and killed inside Union Point City Hall while assisting a fellow officer with booking a drunk driving suspect. During the struggle the suspect overpowered an officer, gained control of a service weapon and fired, fatally wounding Rowry and wounding the other officer. The shooter then fled, stealing a patrol car parked outside city hall.

The suspect was later captured and tried. In the first trial he was convicted of Rowry’s murder and sentenced to death; a second trial overturned that verdict and he was acquitted of murder but convicted of stealing the patrol car. Patrolman Rowry is survived by his wife and a young child.