Douglas B. Miller was a 35-year-old deputy with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office who died after being shot while responding to a June 9, 1986 call about an emotionally disturbed man in an unincorporated area near Los Gatos. Deputies, including Miller, went to the scene at the request of the man’s parents; a struggle occurred when they tried to take Michael Robert Stephens into custody. Stephens seized Miller’s weapon and shot him in the lower abdomen. Miller underwent emergency surgery at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center but died the next morning.

The encounter did not end there. Stephens continued to resist and wounded Deputy Dennis Nixon in the heel before he was shot and killed by Deputy Bill Scott. The shooting was the first time in 55 years a Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputy had been killed in the line of duty. Sheriff Robert Winter and Governor George Deukmejian expressed sorrow, and the deputies involved were placed on routine administrative leave.

If anyone knew Deputy Miller or has information about the incident or the events leading up to it, please share what is known.