Detective Corporal John Robert Christian Jr. was shot on the night of April 18, 1978, while working a second job providing uniformed security at a local beer distributor in Harrisburg. The 35-year-old veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and a 12-year member of the Harrisburg Police Bureau moved to intercept suspects after a report of a robbery in the grocery area and was struck by gunfire. He was taken to Harrisburg Hospital and died of his wounds about three hours later, leaving a wife and three children.

Police focused on a 33-year-old male suspect and located him in Trenton, New Jersey, three days after the shooting. When officers moved to arrest him at his girlfriend’s apartment he opened fire and was seriously wounded in the exchange. He was later tried and found guilty of first-degree murder and four counts of armed robbery and received a life sentence for the murder plus four consecutive terms of 10 to 20 years for the robberies.

Did anyone in the area at the time remember seeing activity around the distributor on April 18, 1978?