A routine traffic stop in Oakland City, Indiana, turned deadly on February 28, 2000. Patrol Officer Michael Edward Deno, 24, who had been with the Oakland City Police Department for about a year, pulled over a driver he recognized as having a suspended license at 339 North Jackson Street. During the stop the driver produced a .25-caliber handgun concealed in his back pocket and fired one shot, striking Officer Deno in the right side of his head.

Officer Deno was taken to St. Mary’s Medical Center of Evansville but died of his wound the next morning, February 29, 2000. Authorities captured the shooter roughly an hour after the shooting near Buckskin. He was charged with murder; the case proceeded as a death penalty matter and resulted in a murder conviction. In December 2000 the judge sentenced the defendant to life without parole, plus a concurrent 20-year term for a drug possession charge.

If anyone knew Officer Deno, was in Oakland City that day, or has information about the traffic stop, please share what you remember.