Gary Don McCarthy, a 33-year-old Dallas Police Department officer, was shot and killed on February 26, 1988, while working an off-duty security job at a grocery store near the intersection of North Hampton Road and Singleton Boulevard. According to reports, he was shot in the chest by an armed suspect while trying to protect the store manager. McCarthy returned fire but did not hit the shooter; he was taken to a hospital and succumbed to his injuries.

The suspect, Vincent Cooks, was identified by a witness, apprehended several days later, convicted of McCarthy’s murder and sentenced to death; Cooks was executed by lethal injection on December 12, 2001. Officer McCarthy had served with the Dallas Police Department for just over a year and is survived by his wife and two children.

Does anyone have memories of the neighborhood or the grocery store from that time, or information about Officer McCarthy’s service that could add to the record?