Officer Mark Anthony Sawyers, 30, was killed during a routine moment while finishing paperwork in his patrol car after a traffic crash on the evening of June 4, 2004. A vehicle pulled alongside his cruiser at the shopping center at 15 Mile Road and Van Dyke Avenue in Sterling Heights, Michigan, and a man armed with a shotgun fired a single blast that struck Sawyers in the head. The assailant then took Sawyers’ service weapon and fled. Sawyers was taken to St. John Macomb Hospital and died the next morning, June 5, 2004.

He had been with the Sterling Heights Police Department seven months after three years with the Detroit Police Department and left a wife and young child. Investigators identified 33-year-old Timothy Berner, a former U.S. Marine with a criminal history, as the suspect and believed he may have been stalking officers to obtain a handgun. A large manhunt by local, state and federal authorities followed and tips generated after the case was featured on America’s Most Wanted led to a July 25, 2004 confrontation in Jacksonville, Florida where Berner used the stolen service weapon to take his own life as officers moved in.

Does anyone who knew Officer Sawyers or witnessed activity around 15 Mile and Van Dyke on June 4 have information to share?