On the evening of April 12, 1983, in West Columbia, South Carolina, 29-year-old police officer Daniel Wayne Cogburn was shot and killed while sitting in his patrol car writing a traffic ticket. He had been on the West Columbia Police Department for four days. Another vehicle pulled alongside and a single, fatal shot was fired.

Investigators later determined the shooting was a case of mistaken identity: the shooter intended to kill a different officer with whom he had a prior altercation, and Cogburn’s resemblance to that officer led to him being targeted despite having no connection to the person Cogburn had stopped. The perpetrator, Robert W. South, was identified, arrested and tried; he was convicted of Cogburn’s murder and was executed in 1996.

The killing left a deep impact on the West Columbia community and the law enforcement family; what memories or details do readers have about Officer Cogburn or that night?