Trooper Gary William Fisher, 26, died on February 3, 1985, in Bessemer, Pennsylvania, during an undercover narcotics operation in the snow-covered parking lot of the Crossroads Plaza in East Huntingdon Township, Westmoreland County. He had served with the Pennsylvania State Police for just under five years with the Region V Strike Force.

Fisher and his partner were making a cocaine buy when the sellers arrived with less than the agreed amount and an arrest was made. During a struggle one of the suspects, Timothy Gray, 21, was initially thought to have gained control of Fisher’s service revolver and shot him. Subsequent investigation found that Fisher slipped on ice while retrieving his fallen weapon and it discharged; homicide charges against Gray were dropped and the death was ruled an accidental line-of-duty shooting. Fisher was survived by his parents and was buried with full military honors at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Patton, Cambria County.