Charles Edward Cassidy was a 54-year-old Philadelphia Police Officer and 25-year veteran who was well known in the neighborhoods he patrolled. On Halloween morning, October 31, 2007, Officer Cassidy stopped at a Dunkin Donuts on Broad Street to check on the business after a recent robbery. As he opened the door an armed robbery was underway; the robber, later identified as John Jordan Lewis, turned and fired a single shot, striking Officer Cassidy in the head. The gunman took Cassidy’s service weapon and fled.

Officer Cassidy was taken to Albert Einstein Medical Center and died of his injuries the next day, November 1, 2007. A large manhunt followed, and on November 6, 2007 John Jordan Lewis was arrested in Miami, Florida and returned to Philadelphia. Lewis later pleaded guilty and was found guilty of first-degree murder; at his November 24, 2009 sentencing the court imposed death by lethal injection after emotional testimony from Cassidy’s family and an expression of remorse from Lewis.