On the evening of July 24, 1988, Sergeant John David Conner III, a 38-year-old Manassas Police Department officer and U.S. Army veteran, was shot and killed while responding to a disturbance call. Conner had served with the department for eight years and was a husband and father of four. Officers had been dispatched after a report of a man on a front porch armed with an AR-15 and firing shots into the air.

When units arrived, the suspect, identified as Roy Bruce Smith, retreated into his townhouse and then exited through the rear. Sergeant Conner was approaching the back of the residence when he encountered Smith. An exchange of gunfire followed; Smith was shot in the foot and Sergeant Conner was struck three times, the fatal wound being a gunshot to the back of his head. Conner was taken to a local hospital and then airlifted to Fairfax Hospital, where he died a few hours later.

The case left a police officer and a family without their husband and father. If anyone in the Manassas area recalls the night of July 24, 1988, or has information about the events leading up to the shooting, please come forward.