Patrolman Terry Lee Thompson, 32, was killed while investigating a burglary alarm at a Burton, Michigan store on the night of July 5, 1983. An alarm company had detected voices inside and notified the store manager and police. When the manager unlocked the building and Thompson entered, gunfire erupted; two 16-year-old suspects who had been hiding inside were involved. Shane Patrick Richey fired the shots that struck Thompson multiple times. Fellow officers surrounded the building but could not reach Thompson for about two hours, and he died of his wounds.

Both teens were arrested. Richey was tried as an adult, convicted of murder, and originally sentenced to life in prison; his accomplice was convicted of breaking and entering and later released. A change in Michigan law on juvenile life sentences prompted a resentencing review that led to Richey’s term being changed to 40 to 60 years, a development that angered Thompson’s family and members of the law enforcement community who remembered his service.

Did anyone in Burton at the time have memories of Officer Thompson or details about the night of July 5, 1983, that could shed more light on the case?