Steven Francis Gaughan was a 41-year-old corporal with the Prince George’s County Police Department when he was fatally shot on June 21, 2005, in Laurel, Maryland. A 15-year veteran assigned to a special team investigating vehicle thefts, he and other officers tried to stop a Chevrolet Tahoe around 11:00 a.m. The driver failed to pull over, ran two red lights and turned into the Village at Montpelier apartments on South Laurel Drive.

When a passenger, Robert M. Billett, jumped from the SUV and fled, Gaughan chased him behind an apartment building. A shootout followed; Gaughan was struck once in the abdomen and later died at a hospital. Billett was wounded and later charged with first-degree murder. At trial, defense attorneys said Billett acted in self-defense and that Gaughan fired first. A Prince George’s County jury convicted Billett of first-degree murder, and prosecutors, after consulting Gaughan’s family, did not seek the death penalty. Billett was sentenced to life without parole.

Did anyone in the area at the time see the Tahoe before the stop or recall unusual activity at the Village at Montpelier that morning?