Detective Robert E. Walls was 54 and a 27-year veteran of the Essex County Sheriff’s Department when he was wounded during a robbery at the V & J Tavern on Seventh Street in Newark on the evening of November 26, 1985. He had been off-duty and was with Sergeant Nathaniel Taylor when three masked men entered and announced a robbery. Sergeant Taylor moved to intervene and was fatally shot; Detective Walls drew his weapon and was severely wounded. Walls died of his injuries on December 18, 1985, after 24 days on life support.

Authorities arrested two suspects within two days of the shooting, and a third suspect was taken into custody on June 17, 1986. Four young men — aged 17, 18, 18, and 21 — were charged in the murders, convicted on two counts of murder, and given two consecutive 30-year terms for each defendant.