Steven Leroy Mahan, Sergeant

Elk City Police Department

Shortly after 2 A.M. on Wednesday, January 5, 1983, Sergeant Mahan stopped by the Los Cuartos Inn on I-40 to check the welfare of the night clerk as he routinely did. He noticed the clerk was absent then saw a black man run around the corner of the hotel. Sergeant Mahan was then confronted by two other armed robbers, who then shot him in the abdomen. While the officer was laying face down on the ground he was disarmed and shot several times in the head. Three men arrested 30 minutes later in Clinton were charged with the armed robbery of the motel and the murder of Sergeant Mahan. Sergeant Mahan died at 5:30 A.M. that morning. His ex-wife and 2 year-old-daughter, Heather, survived him.