Deputy Sheriff Jimmy Charles Matthews, 43, was killed in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, on April 26, 1982. A seven-year veteran of the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office, Matthews was a husband and father of two sons. He and two other deputies had been sent to a residence to check on a suspicious person who was described as a man with a history of mental illness. When officers received no response at the door, Matthews moved to look through a window and was struck in the face by a shotgun blast fired from inside. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The other deputies then attempted to enter the home, and the man who had fired the shot was shot and killed during that encounter. Because the suspect died at the scene, no arrests or prosecutions followed. Does anyone have memories of Deputy Matthews or information about that April 1982 response that could shed more light on what happened?