Deputy Sheriff Robert V. Piddle Taylor, 45, was shot and killed in Union Parish, Louisiana, in late September 1978 while attempting to serve a warrant at a residence near Farmerville. A six-year veteran of the Union Parish Sheriff’s Department, he was a husband and father of six. After being shot with a small-caliber handgun, Taylor managed to radio for help and began driving toward assistance; a state trooper intercepted him and took him to a local hospital, where Taylor died of his wounds.

The next day the suspect, identified as Roger Daniel Bryan, was located in another state and extradited to Louisiana. A Union Parish grand jury indicted Bryan on September 21, 1978, for first-degree murder. After a lengthy trial, a jury found him guilty and recommended life in prison without parole, probation, or suspension of sentence; that recommendation was binding on the court. Accounts differed at trial, with the state presenting circumstantial evidence that Bryan anticipated and resisted arrest, while Bryan and his wife said the deputy had forced entry into their home in the middle of the night.

Did anyone in the Farmerville area at the time witness the warrant service or have additional details about what happened that night?