On the night of May 15, 1999, in Palmer, Alaska, 30-year-old Police Officer James Arland Rowland Jr. stopped at the Carrs Quality Center parking lot after spotting a pickup with fogged windows and a driver slumped over the wheel. About 1:30 a.m., Rowland approached for a welfare check, relayed the plate to dispatch and learned the truck was registered to Kim Michael Cook with expired credentials. When Rowland knocked, Cook stepped out and the two spoke at the rear of the truck. As Rowland reached for his handcuffs, Cook bolted; the two grappled into the cab while a civilian ride-along, EMT and friend Todd Russell, watched from the patrol car.

Three shots followed. Rowland was hit in the upper chest; he returned fire and wounded Cook before collapsing outside the truck. Rowland died at the scene; Cook survived, required two surgeries, was charged with first-degree murder, and was convicted by a Palmer jury in October 2000. Appeals up through 2004 affirmed the conviction; civil wrongful-death proceedings between Cook and Rowland’s estate ran alongside the criminal case. Rowland, a Navy veteran, had served three years with Palmer Police and left a wife and a five-year-old son.

Did anyone who knew Officer Rowland or was in Palmer that night see events in the Carrs parking lot that haven’t been shared publicly?