On September 1, 1978, Catoosa, Oklahoma’s only police officer, Chief J. B. Hamby, 46, was killed during a violent shootout while responding to a robbery at the town’s driver licensing station. Hamby, a 20-year law enforcement veteran, was met by two armed suspects and was wounded in the ensuing gunfire. He managed to fatally shoot one assailant but, while reloading his revolver and after stepping outside, the second suspect fled. Hamby crawled to a nearby laundromat seeking help and died on the floor there.

The man found dead at the scene was identified as Jackie Ray Young and was determined to have a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The second suspect, David Gordon Smith, also wounded in the exchange, escaped by car but was apprehended the same day after being taken by ambulance to a Tulsa hospital. Smith was charged with Chief Hamby’s murder under the felony-murder doctrine and later convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Are there witnesses or family members who remember Chief Hamby or the events that night and can share details that help keep the record accurate?