On October 6, 1978, 30-year-old Pierce County Deputy Sheriff Kenneth Moran was killed in the line of duty during a violent confrontation following an armed bank robbery in Parkland, Washington. Three masked suspects, one armed with a rifle, robbed the Pacific National Bank around 11:30 a.m., fled in a white van, then transferred to a Bobcat station wagon. A Washington State Patrol trooper spotted the vehicle and a pursuit began. When the suspects abandoned the car and fled on foot across a pasture and into brush they continued firing at officers.

Deputy Moran arrived to assist and, while attempting to draw a confused civilian woman out of the line of fire, left cover and was struck in the chest. He radioed that shots had been fired and that he was down, and was taken to Lakewood General Hospital where he died of his wounds. An investigation after the shootout led to charges against eight suspects for robbery and murder; seven were later convicted of first-degree murder and robbery, and one pleaded to second-degree murder.