Corporal David William Witmer, 35, was a nine-year veteran of the Shamokin City Police Department who was killed in the line of duty on the night of November 13, 1983. He answered a mutual-aid call in Zerbe Township after a man later identified as Preston Pfifley set an auto-body garage on fire. As officers confronted the scene and Pfifley tried to flee in a tractor-trailer, Witmer was struck in the neck by a rifle shot and died almost instantly; another officer was wounded but survived.

Local agencies, including Shamokin City Police, Coal Township Police and the Pennsylvania State Police, apprehended Pfifley and charged him with murder. Witmer, a U.S. military veteran, was survived by his wife and daughter. His death is recorded as the only line-of-duty killing of a police officer in Shamokin’s history.