On the evening of January 15, 1998, in Gary, Indiana, 27-year-old police detective Dorian David Rorex was shot and killed while on duty. A United States Marine veteran who had been in law enforcement for six years, Detective Rorex and two plainclothes colleagues were responding to complaints of drug activity in the 2500 block of Tyler Street. At about 9:30 p.m. they approached a man who matched a dealer’s description; when he fled, Rorex chased him on foot. The pursuit ended at a fence where the suspect opened fire, striking Rorex once in the chest and twice in the abdomen.

Rorex was taken to Northlake Methodist Hospital and pronounced dead about an hour later. One of the other detectives returned fire, wounding the 24-year-old suspect and leaving him paralyzed from the waist down; the suspect was taken into custody and later convicted of murder. Rorex was survived by his parents, two sisters, a brother, his expectant fiancée, and a one-year-old son.

Any readers who knew Detective Rorex or have information about that night are asked to come forward.