TX TX - Officer Lowell Tribble, 37, Farmers Branch, 27 Aug 1983

[fhc]

Farmers Branch police officer Lowell Clayton "L.C." Tribble was on his way back to work about 1 a.m. in August 1983, after dropping off flu medicine at home for his ailing 2-year-old son.

Within moments, someone gunned down the 38-year-old officer inside his patrol car, and police struggled to capture his killer for nearly three decades.


Gary Wayne Pettigrew Friday, 27 years to the day of Tribble's death, Farmers Branch police and Dallas County prosecutors announced the arrest and indictment of Gary Wayne Pettigrew in what had been the oldest unsolved cop killing in the state.

He said that Pettigrew, 63, who has already been indicted on a capital murder charge, was arrested Friday morning.

State District Judge Robert Burns set his bail at $5 million.

http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/082610dnmetcoldcase.95702c59.html

 

[OkieGranny]

From April 2011:

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/loca...gainst-man-accused-of-killing-cop-in-1983.ece

The Dallas County district attorney’s office moved Friday to dismiss a capital murder case against a man charged in the oldest unsolved slaying of a Texas police officer.

Gary Pettigrew was indicted in August in the 1983 shooting death of Farmers Branch police Officer Lowell Clayton “L.C.” Tribble. But now prosecutors say they don’t have the evidence to convict him.

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/comm...-branch-officer-angry-that-case-is-tossed.ece

Sheila Schaack said the DA’s office is “yanking us around like a yo-yo” by charging Gary Pettigrew in August — 17 years to the day her father was shot inside his patrol car — and then deciding it didn’t have enough evidence to proceed.

Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins held a news conference to announce Pettigrew’s indictment and arrest in the slaying of 38-year-old Lowell Clayton “L.C.” Tribble. Watkins was facing a contentious re-election battle, which he narrowly won.

From July 2015:

http://www.rockwallheraldbanner.com...cle_d8d72708-354a-11e5-a27f-0f0e3b03ab75.html

“I had just spoken with him moments before,” Riggs said. “He went home because he had a sick child. His wife was the manager at the apartment complex.”

It was when he returned to his patrol car that investigators believe Tribble may have seen a drug deal going down. Before he was able to get out of the car, he was murdered. Riggs said Tribble was able to get at least one round off in return fire.

“It never was cleared,” Riggs said about the murder case.