On a September day in 1982, Franklin County Sheriff James Posey, 37, was killed after exchanging himself for a woman and her three children who had been abducted by Derald Coghlan. The abduction began in Franklin County and continued into Lincoln County, where Mississippi Highway Patrol officers established roadblocks. The vehicle carrying Coghlan and the hostages was stopped on Jackson Liberty Drive at Bogue Chitto Road.

Sheriff Posey volunteered to take the place of the hostages; Coghlan agreed and the woman and her three children were released. After Posey sat in a police car with Coghlan, Coghlan fired a .38 caliber handgun, shooting Sheriff Posey in the chest. Deputies immediately returned fire, and Coghlan was shot and killed. Sheriff Posey died at the scene; he was serving his second term and was survived by his wife and two teenage children.

Are there readers who remember this incident or who knew Sheriff Posey and can share memories or details about the response that day?