Deputy Sheriff Jerry Bryant, 44, was killed on January 5, 1984, while on patrol in Columbia, Mississippi. Bryant had been with the Marion County Sheriff’s Department for six days and was investigating a string of burglaries the night he stopped two men he found suspicious. During the encounter one of the men fatally shot the deputy.

A large manhunt followed that night. The search ended in a confrontation in which one suspect was shot and killed by officers; the other was arrested and held in jail. While awaiting further legal proceedings the surviving suspect hanged himself in his cell. Bryant left a wife and a daughter.