On July 24, 1984, 34-year-old truck driver Tom Altringer was fatally shot inside the Grand Central Motel Lodge in Hot Springs, Arkansas, during a violent attack that left four dead and one wounded. The assailant, 33-year-old Wayne Crossley of Benton, Arkansas, had been ejected from the motel lounge for intoxication, returned armed with a shotgun, and shot lounge manager Helen Frazee, patrons James J. Stephens and Juanita Allen, and Altringer. Truck driver John D. Crue was wounded and taken into surgery in critical but stable condition.

Crossley also seriously wounded Sergeant Wayne Warwick in a shootout with police before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the heart as officers prepared to enter the motel. Companions Jerry C. Wooten, Raymond Wooten, and Carl Langley were detained as material witnesses and held on bonds of $2,500 each. The assailant was reported to have a prior violent history including terroristic threatening.

Is there anyone who knew Tom Altringer or was at the Grand Central Motel Lodge that night who can shed more light on what happened?