On November 22, 1994, Detective Sergeant Henry Joseph Hank Daly, 51, a 28-year veteran of the Metropolitan Police Department, was killed inside police headquarters in Washington, D.C. Daly was working in the third-floor office of the Cold Case Squad when a 25-year-old man, Bennie Lee Lawson, entered the building armed with a compact assault weapon and opened fire, striking and killing Daly. Two FBI agents, Martha Dixon Martinez and Michael John Miller, were also fatally shot and another FBI agent was seriously wounded.

Lawson’s motive was connected to a prior triple homicide investigation in which he had been a suspect and had later been cleared; reports say he was labeled a snitch by members of his gang and planned an attack on law enforcement to prove his loyalty. He reportedly intended to target the Homicide Squad but entered the Cold Case office by mistake. Lawson was wounded when an agent returned fire and then killed himself using an agent’s weapon.

The assault weapon used in the attack was traced to a man in Kentucky who illegally sold firearms to criminals and was later sentenced to 15 years in federal prison. Authorities also arrested nine of Lawson’s alleged associates from the First and Kennedy Street Crew on drug and gun charges as part of the wider investigation.

If anyone has information about Sergeant Daly or the events surrounding this attack, please share what is known.