William Howard Wilson was 37 and had served as Cedar Bluff’s police chief for only three weeks when he was shot and killed on July 29, 1973, while attempting to make an arrest. Earlier that week two of his officers had been assaulted by a local tow truck operator during a traffic stop; Chief Wilson went to 3550 Old Highway 9 to arrest the man for that assault. A shootout broke out on arrival and Wilson was struck in the head by a round from a 7mm hunting rifle.

The tow truck operator was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, but a grand jury declined to return a true bill and the charges were dismissed. In the early 1980s that same man was later elected mayor of Cedar Bluff. Does anyone have additional details about the shooting, the grand jury proceedings, or the town’s response in the years afterward?