On July 13, 2014, 23-year-old Jersey City police officer Melvin Vincent Santiago responded with a partner to a pre-dawn robbery call at a 24-hour Walgreens. Santiago had been on the force only a few months. As the patrol car arrived just after 4 a.m., 27-year-old Lawrence Campbell emerged and opened fire on the vehicle without warning. Santiago was struck in the head and later pronounced dead at Jersey City Medical Center.

Other officers returned fire and shot Campbell multiple times; he was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators later found Campbell had been under the influence of alcohol and PCP and that he’d assaulted an armed security guard inside the store and taken that guard’s firearm. Campbell was also a suspect in a prior homicide. The officers’ use of deadly force was later ruled justifiable.

Santiago, who had dreamed of being a police officer since childhood, was posthumously promoted to detective and mourned by hundreds at his funeral. If anyone has information about the events that night or knew Officer Santiago, please share what you remember.