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It was the evening of May 7, 1988, and while most of the town of Mountainair attended a talent show at the high school, a rookie cop remained at the police department — in a cramped room atop a narrow staircase above town hall.
Stephen Sandlin, a 21-year-old who had joined the four-man force a couple of months earlier, called his girlfriend to vent his frustrations with the chief who told him to “mellow out because he was issuing too many citations and running his radar too much.”
Before the evening turned to night, Sandlin was shot in the head with his own service weapon…… To read more, visit citydesk.org.