Delbert Junior Roush Sr., 61, was a longtime lieutenant with the Charleston Police Department when he was shot and killed in the early morning hours of June 26, 1981, while backing another patrolman during a traffic stop near U.S. Route 60. Patrolman Eddie Ray Duncan was also fatally wounded at the scene after officers stopped a yellow Cadillac linked to a disturbance at Spyro’s Lounge. Witnesses saw Antoine B. Hickman leave the bar group and sit in the Cadillac; when officers questioned the vehicle’s occupants, Hickman refused to exit and gunfire erupted.

Mackie, the Cadillac’s driver, fled but later returned and radioed for help. Both officers were taken for emergency treatment but died of their wounds. Investigators identified Hickman as the suspect; he was arrested the evening of June 26, later convicted by a jury of two counts of first-degree murder and given consecutive life sentences without mercy. Appeals challenged the voluntariness of his confessions and his intoxication at the time, but the courts rejected those arguments.

Does anyone have memories of Spyro’s Lounge or the area around U.S. Route 60 that could add context to that night?