After almost two decades, North Richland Hills Police solve the shooting of one of its officers.
And now, we're hearing from that officer, as well as the detective who solved the case.
On March 3rd, 2003, North Richland Hills police officer Jeff Garner was on his motorcycle conducting a traffic stop on a man driving a Jeep who, unbeknownst to him at the time, had just robbed a bank in Watauga.
However, the driver led Garner on a chase, during which time he fired five shots.
One of them went through Garner's right leg just above his ankle, and the other four missed.
The driver escaped and remained at large ever since.
Then in 2015, Det. Erik Whitlock was assigned to the case; and in analyzing the evidence, he determined that the driver was involved in seven bank robberies between 1998 and 2003, with the one in Watauga being the last one.
He submitted DNA evidence to Identifinders International for a forensic genealogy exam, and that exam identified the source of that DNA as Mark Alan Long of Oklahoma City.
So in February of this year, Whitlock and other undercover detectives conducted surveillance on Long in Oklahoma.
"We were able to secure from a restaurant where Mark had dined at a fork, a spoon and a straw," Det. Whitlock said during a Friday morning news conference.
That DNA matched the DNA from those bank robberies.
Agents then found Long and started covertly questioning him, at one point asking him about a shirt that he allegedly wore during one of those robberies.
"Have you ever owned an Orkin? Ever worked for Orkin or anything of that nature? 'No.' Okay, well then how is your DNA on a shirt that you've never owned that you sold at a thrift store?"
At this point, Long's alibi started falling apart.
During the questioning, agents were executing a search warrant at his house and his vehicle - and during the search, they found a revolver - a revolver that Long never mentioned when listing the firearms that he owned.
"We found that in his bedroom under his bed in a case," Whitlock said. "It was loaded with .38 Special rounds in the cylinder - the same caliber class used to shoot officer Garner."
And they were able to conclusively tie that to the shooting of Officer Garner.
"The ballistics from the two projectiles found at the shooting scene were in fact a match to this revolver," Whitlock said. "They were fired from this very revolver owned by Mark long found in Mark Long's bedroom."
So earlier this week, Detective Whitlock secured four arrest warrants and was ready to arrest him outside his place of work.
However, the arrest would never happen.
"On April 10th, 2022, at around 11:20 a.m., Mark Long had jumped off of a cell tower to his death," Whitlock said.
And with that, Long took many unanswered questions with him to his grave - most notably, why he went on his bank robbery spree and why he shot Ofc. Garner.
As for Garner, he made a full recovery and is now a captain with the North Richland Hills Police Department.
"I have been carrying the weight of this event for 19 years," said Capt. Garner, "and I'm eternally grateful for the opportunity to finally set it aside."
And he says the events of March 3rd, 2003, have stayed with him ever since.
"Nineteen years, one month and nine days later, I identified Mark Long in a photo lineup," Garner said. "I never forgot his face. And now we know his name."
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