On December 15, 1982, 24-year-old Metropolitan Police Department officer Robert K. Best was killed in Suitland, Maryland, while working a plainclothes detail. Best and his partner identified a stolen vehicle and pursued it from Washington D.C. into Prince George’s County. The suspects’ car crashed at Branch Avenue and Curtis Drive; two men fled on foot.

Best chased one suspect into the apartment complex at 3200 Curtis Drive. As he rounded a corner, 27-year-old Vincent Alexander Dark confronted him, fired at Best and missed, then shot him twice in the back as Best fell; one bullet struck Best’s heart. Other officers arriving on scene exchanged gunfire with Dark, who was shot and killed. The second suspect, 30-year-old Marvin C. Wilson, was captured by Best’s partner and charged with theft, transportation of stolen property, and possession of stolen property.

Are there details about the pursuit, the crash, or the arrests that anyone in the community can add?