News Releases

Today We Remember Det. Lt. Donald A. Robertson

For Immediate Release: Friday, March 9, 2012

On March 9, 1972 two gunmen robbed the Hahn's shoe store at the corner of Georgia Avenue and Colesville Road in Silver Spring at shortly after 4:00 p.m..  Police were called and a lookout was placed over the air.  A patrol unit stopped a southbound auto on Georgia near Wayne Avenue, even though it contained only one suspect.  The driver, Jeffrey Burke, 24, was taken into custody and the auto, a white 1964 Rambler with DC tags, was driven to the Silver Spring station by an officer and parked in the basement garage.

Burke was taken upstairs to the Detective Bureau for questioning.  Detective Lieutenant Donald A. Robertson was already off-duty but was still at the station when the suspect was brought in.  He hadn't mentioned it to anyone, but that particular day was his 13th anniversary on the police force.  Lt. Robertson was suspicious that a second suspect might be hiding in the trunk of the car.  Finding no key to the trunk, he took two uniformed officers with him to look at the car which had been driven into the garage, nose-first, and they walked around behind the car to look at the trunk.  There were only about three feet between the car and the closed garage door.  They first tried picking the lock using different keys, but that didn't work.  They tried prying the trunk lid, also with no success.  The lieutenant then suggested that they pull out the back seat.

He went in first and began pulling on the seat cushion.  A shot rang out, followed by another and another.  The suspect fired three shots through the back seat.  The first bullet struck the driver's side of the windshield, the second hit the passenger side windshield and the third hit the lieutenant in the forehead.  He slumped to the seat.

The gunman in the trunk, Stevan Van Turner, a 25-year-old heroin addict, was later found dead as a result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head.  The key to the trunk was found on Turner.  One thousand dollars taken in the robbery was also found in the trunk.

Donald Robertson was transported to the Washington Sanitarium in Takoma Park and was pronounced dead at 7:30 p.m.  He was 35 years old.  He was survived by his wife, Nancy, a 9-year-old daughter, Jennifer, and a 14-year-old daughter, Sherry; a sister, Peggy Sigwald, and a brother Ralph.  At the time of her husband's death, Nancy was pregnant and would later give birth to a son who was named Donald.  Lt. Robertson's brother Ralph and brother-in-law, Robert Sigwald, were both members of the department.  A niece, Karen Sigwald Arnold, is currently a Montgomery County Police officer.

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Release ID: 12-007
Media Contact: mcpnews 
Categories: remembrances