On January 2, 2004, Athens, Alabama police officer Anthony Lee Mims, 40, was killed in an ambush after responding to a call on Horton Street. The caller first asked to speak with the FBI and then phoned back requesting the police; when Mims arrived he was fired on through his patrol car windshield with a high-powered rifle and was struck multiple times while still belted in his seat.The same shooter, identified as Farron Barksdale, then shot Sergeant Larry Russell when Russell arrived; Russell was airlifted to a hospital and died a short time later.

Barksdale surrendered at the scene and was charged with multiple counts of capital murder and shooting into an occupied vehicle. In July 2007 Barksdale pleaded guilty to five counts of capital murder and two counts of shooting into an occupied vehicle as part of an agreement that spared the death penalty and received life without parole.

Barksdale later was found unconscious in his cell and died in hospital from bronchopneumonia.Compelling details remain the initial, unusual calls and the tactic of firing through the windshield — does anyone have information about the caller’s background or movements that day?