Major Richard J. Beavers was a 37-year-old White major with the Prince George’s County Police Department who commanded the Oxon Hill District Station. On the evening of November 28, 1983, while conducting a premise check in his unmarked vehicle in Temple Hills, he observed two people approaching his car. As he began to challenge them, the two produced handguns and opened fire. Major Beavers was critically wounded, managed to return fire and struck one of the assailants, and was taken to a local hospital where he died the next morning on November 29, 1983.

Investigators identified and arrested Jerome Kevin Byrd as a suspect. He was charged with first-degree murder and using a handgun in the commission of a felony; the case proceeded to trial and resulted in a guilty verdict and a life sentence. Major Beavers’s family and colleagues mourned the loss of an officer who had served 16 years with the department.

If anyone knew Major Beavers, his routine patrol areas, or saw activity near Temple Hills on the night of November 28, 1983, please share what is known.