Dangerous Predictions: The Case of Randall Dale Adams (Forensic Case Profiles Section‪)‬

On November 28, 1976, shortly after midnight, Dallas Police Officer Robert Wood and his partner, Officer Turko, made a routine traffic stop of a car driving without headlights. Officer Wood approached the driver's side of the vehicle and was shot five times, dying on the spot. Officer Turko fired several shots as the car sped off, but she was not able to get the car's license plate number. She saw only the driver in the car. Over the next few days, 300 miles away, 16-year-old David Ray Harris bragged to friends that he "off'd a pig," showing them a gun he claimed was the murder weapon. Within days of the murder, Harris was pulled over and arrested for driving a stolen vehicle. During the investigation, officers heard of Harris' boasting but, when questioned, he claimed he was just trying to impress his friends. Investigators soon learned that the stolen car matched the vehicle used in the Dallas murder and that the gun Harris was showing around (which he had stolen from his father) was the exact gun that killed Officer Wood.