Patrolman Marshall Jefferson Sowders Jr., 28, was shot and killed on the night of November 22, 1977, while making a traffic stop on FM 1845 just west of Cotton Street in Longview, Texas. Sowders had served three months with the Longview Police Department and had prior law enforcement experience; he was survived by his wife.

About 20 minutes after the killing, another officer stopped the same vehicle near Gilmer. A woman exited and fired the same .357 caliber handgun; the officer returned fire with a shotgun, critically wounding her. Both suspects, a 23-year-old man and a 23-year-old woman, were taken into custody. The male suspect was charged with capital murder, convicted on September 29, 1978, and originally sentenced to death; his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment on April 10, 1991. The female suspect was left paralyzed from the waist down and later released to go home for special care.

Does anyone have additional details about the stop that night or remembers the case from the Longview area?