On March 28, 1975, Mount Holly Police Officer John O. Holmes responded to a report of a man with a gun in the 200 block of Garden Street. Holmes and another officer approached the house from different sides attempting to de-escalate the situation when the man inside opened fire. A bullet struck Officer Holmes and severed his spine; he was taken to Burlington County Memorial Hospital and left paralyzed.

Two other officers, Patrolman Donald Aleshire of the Mount Holly Police Department and Officer William Wurst of the Hainesport Police Department, were shot and killed in the same incident. The shooter, a 23-year-old man who later reportedly believed he was back in Vietnam, barricaded himself for more than three hours before being taken into custody and was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1977 and committed to a psychiatric institution.

Officer Holmes lived with his injuries for seventeen years and died of those wounds in 1992, survived by his wife, three sons, a brother, three sisters, and a grandchild. Did anyone in the Mount Holly community have contact with Officer Holmes or his family around that time and can share memories or information?