Original subtitles

I trusted Mike with my life and he trusted me with his.

His eyes was open.

He had a look on his face like, "my god."

His hands was up in the air like this.

Some of us were trying to work on him.

I've been involved in other instances

where police officers had been shot and killed,

but I've never been involved in an incident

where the police officer was assassinated.

I had a pit in my stomach.

That was like the worst day of my life.

When your brother is not there to see his daughter graduate

from college.

He's not there to see his grandkids being born.

There's still a hole in all of our hearts for Mike.

I'm saying to myself, I'll find that evidence.

I will solve this case.

Michael Beverly will not have died in vain

and we will not let his killer go.

We will find him.

Captions paid for by discovery communications

Mike Beverly grows up in Chester, Pennsylvania,

a fading industrial city on the outskirts of Philadelphia.

Mike is my baby brother.

There was 13 of US.

We grew up very close-knitted family.

It was all kinds of regular fun,

making lemonade stands, playing baseball on the corner.

You had some, you know, issues,

but nothing like what you deal with today.

After a stint in the marines,

Mike attends north east Christian university.

And that's where he met Claudia.

I would say he came home when he wanted to marry Claudia.

They were totally in love.

Then they got married, had five kids, beautiful kids.

Mike absolutely loved being a dad, he really did.

In 1989, at the age of 24,

Mike joins the Chester police force.

The city of Chester was pretty rampant

with dealing with cocaine and trafficking of drugs

during that period of time,

known for shootings and guns and homicides.

I thought, you know, we need some good

police officers on the force

that know people in the city. We grew up in the city,

so I figured he might could do some good for it.

Mike was an excellent police officer.

He knew the ins and outs of the streets.

The Chester police department had a detective division,

and Mike was assigned to that division.

Mike was an outstanding detective,

an outstanding police officer.

The attention to detail that he paid, his source information,

his ability to gather information within the city

were second to none.

In 2000, Mike is promoted to corporal.

Mike was an integral part of training officers

when they first came on to teach him how to do it the right way.

Mike taught US how safety was first,

always safety first.

And he said, you always want to come home.

Being a young rookie police officer,

I always said I would like to pattern myself after him.

The number one task for Mike and his team...

Is to keep Chester streets safe from the boyle street boys,

a gang that rules the highland gardens neighborhood

highland gardens is on the West Side

of the city of Chester.

At that time, was a poor neighborhood.

Lot of abandoned houses, a lot of rundown houses.

High crime was there.

It was so bad that the city lights,

the street lights were out.

Highland gardens, at that time,

was an open air drug market.

It was a very violent area.

And there was gunshots all the time.

The individuals that lived in there

were people that carry guns.

The boyle street boys had a special reputation for violence.

Mike knew who they were. He knew them very well.

He actually said, "ray,

if you ever go up into highland gardens,

don't go up by yourself and don't go up at night."

On October 16, 2001, at 4:00 pm,

Mike starts roll call at the Chester police department.

That's where we get our assignments and our updates

by our supervisor.

They are on the hunt for Brian Rogers,

a member of the boyle street boys.

A week earlier,

he allegedly shot a young mother named Tracey Saunders.

She'd agreed to be a witness in a case against the gang.

The mistake that Tracey made is Tracey told her cousin

that the authorities wanted her to testify.

The members of the boyle street crew,

the gang, knew that they were

going to get everything from her,

and they couldn't let that happen.

And that's when the decision was made to kill her.

On the 8th of October -- it was a sunday night --

Tracey Saunders was coming out. She worked the 11:00 pm

to 7:00 am shift at a drugstore.

Brian Rogers walked straight up to the vehicle.

The window was down.

He fired one round into the side of her head.

He then reached into the car

and fired a second round into her head,

making sure she was dead.

Outraged by the senseless murder

of this young mother,

Mike is determined to track down Brian Rogers.

Mike would say there is no reason

why she was just gunned down like a dog.

It was just a shame when people trying to do something right,

and there is no respect for human life,

no human decency.

Although he tells the officers

they should be on the lookout for Brian,

he warns them not to go to highland gardens.

There were three detectives that were working

undercover operations up at that location.

He stressed to US, stay out of the gardens.

He said that multiple times -- stay out the highland gardens.

And when he walked out, we kind of looked at each other

and we laughed. It was a little inside joke.

How many times you gonna tell US stay out the gardens?

That day, it was quiet, little more quiet than normal,

but you couldn't put your hand

on where the tension was coming from.

Around 9:30, my partner and I receive a radio call

with a tone to it.

Officer down. All units, shots fired, officer down.

And a call said, "we got a report of an officer down."

All units report to ward and 10th.

And they gave the location in the highland gardens.

At the time, we looked at each other

'cause this has to be a bad call.

Despite Mike's directive that night

not to go to highland gardens, his men can't ignore this call,

we rush into our cars.

I look at my colleague, and I said,

"be careful, all right, we got to get out here.

We got to be careful."

We were the second car that arrived on location.

And it's a big crowd there.

We're out, weapons drawn for officer safety.

As everybody is moving, getting out the way,

that's when I saw Mike.

He was in the driveway at the location,

he was on his back.

You can see he had multiple gunshot wounds.

And his eyes was open. His mouth was open.

He had a look on his face like, "my god."

His hands was up in the air like this.

I remember getting to him.

I was holding his hand.

We called him "bev."

"Bev, bev. Come on, bev, got to get up, got to get up."

Some of US were trying to work on him.

One of our senior officers pulled me away from him.

I remember him saying, "son, you got to keep it together.

You got to get it together. You got to keep it together."

From experience, we know when somebody is deceased.

But because that was one of our own,

we didn't want to accept it.

We all just lost it.

There were civilians out there that were crying.

I just remember being in shock.

After the paramedics pronounced him dead,

it started raining, and one of our coworkers

had his raincoat.

Back then, we had the old bright yellow raincoats.

He took it and placed it over Mike.

All units respond.

Mike Beverly's team has responded

to a call of an officer down in highland gardens.

Everyone is stunned to discover it's him.

I was upset that it was Mike.

We had spent a lot of time together

and been through a lot of things.

But I knew that I needed to keep my composure that evening

if this was going to get solved, do the right thing,

make sure you do it properly.

Detectives quickly lock down the crime scene

and attempt to get a better picture

of the injuries Mike sustained.

Michael Beverly was shot four times, twice in the head

and twice in the torso in between the opening of his vest.

The shooter was at a very close range when he shot him.

There were no shell casings at the scene,

which indicates he was shot with a revolver.

I knew that Mike had come across somebody

and was surprised by that person

'cause his gun was still in his holster.

And he had keys to the car in his hand.

The question looming in everyone's mind

is why Mike had ventured into highland gardens

after warning his squad to stay away from there.

I had no clue what was going on.

No clue of why he was there,

no clue of anything.

Things are going through my mind,

such as why didn't he call out? Why is Mike here?

For Mike to be in that neighborhood,

tell US not to go into it, we thought that he had

some knowledge, maybe somebody contacted him.

Detectives wonder if Mike got a tip about

Brian Rogers, the gang member suspected

in the murder of Tracey Saunders.

Could Mike have decided to follow a lead on his own?

Mike was very anxious

for Brian to be taken into custody.

He took the Tracey Saunders murder very hard.

And I do believe in my soul that Mike wanted Brian bad,

to bring justice for Tracey and for her family.

Now they can't help but wonder

if Brian Rogers killed Mike.

We thought that Mike was set up.

We believe that he was shot and killed by Brian Rogers.

If the boyle street boys decided that Michael Beverly

should be killed, then Brian Rogers

would have no problem killing Michael Beverly.

News of the fallen officer spreads quickly.

Wo tonight, police are on the hunt for a suspect

in the brutal murder of one of their own.

There's a news flash comes over the TV --

"breaking news, police officer killed in Chester."

And I'm like, "my god."

I made a call and I found out it was Mike Beverly.

I had a pit in my stomach.

It just -- I couldn't believe it.

When Michael's family was advised of his death...

That was hard.

He had young kids,

some of them were too young to really understand,

but he had older ones that did.

And that's just -- I can't even

tell you how we felt on that one.

That was like the worst day of my life.

Claudia was devastated.

We couldn't believe somebody would actually,

like, shoot him, period,

but then, to shoot him multiple times, we thought,

"wow, like, they just meant to kill him."

It just hurt my soul that these kids,

no dad, you know, and taken like that.

Everybody was just brokenhearted.

Detectives continue to believe Brian Rogers is their guy,

but they're going to have to find a way to prove it.

After the death of Mike Beverly,

detectives did intensify their effort to find Brian Rogers.

You had a guy that was a member of the boyle street boys,

and then, you had an officer now who was dead.

So it was a serious effort to go get Brian Rogers.

I thought there had to be somebody

that saw this take place.

They return to highland gardens

to canvass for witnesses.

We were going to stop everybody that came and went

and question and write down

everybody's name that we could possibly talk to.

I start talking to some of the people in the neighborhood.

Nobody will talk to US.

No. -They said,

"if I say something to you, I might not be here tomorrow."

We're investigating a murder case.

Boyle street gang, they had an iron fist in that city.

The investigation was hot and heavy.

Posters were made.

They were placed in businesses. Fliers was given out.

People, not only detectives, were out there

pounding the pavement,

trying to get someone to speak on it,

and it seemed like we were going nowhere.

But Brian Rogers can't stay hidden for long.

Brian Rogers was arrested in darby, Pennsylvania,

by darby borough police department.

He was with another member of the boyle street gang

at a girlfriend's house.

Once in custody, investigators hope Brian Rogers

will confess to the murders of Mike Beverly

and Tracey Saunders,

but he refuses to talk.

He immediately lawyered up and asked for an attorney.

That's when detective carr

gives Rogers an ominous warning.

I told him, "I know what you've done,

I know who you did it to.

You need to make sure that you take care of yourself

because one of your guys are going to flip.

So do you want to get on the bus first

or do you want to get on last?"

He kind of looked at me and didn't say anything,

and I said, "thanks for listening, Brian."

I says, "we'll be talking again, guaranteed."

Gang member Brian Rogers refuses to confess

to the murders of Mike Beverly or Tracey Saunders.

And with no evidence against him,

detectives have no choice but to release him.

We had to build our case, and that's what we did.

They start by looking into Mike's phone records,

the last number that he called

came back to a Gloria Adams,

who resided steps away from the location of the homicide.

It was about 8:30

that Mike had called the number on ward street,

and it was only about 10 minutes prior to his being shot

and being found dead at the scene.

Detectives immediately go to Gloria Adams' home

in the highland gardens neighborhood.

We knock on the door, Gloria Adams,

she says, "I know Mike."

Miss Adams was visibly upset.

I mean, she was shaking at a point.

She was upset about the fact that Mike had been shot.

Gloria tells detectives that she had known Mike for years.

Not only that, Mike had been a positive role model

for her 18 year old son, Maurice.

Maurice hung around with the boyle street boys,

but more of a wannabe than an actual member.

Miss Adams was concerned about her son and his welfare

and his dealings with people in the neighborhood.

Mike was trying to do that,

as he had done for other people in the neighborhood.

If they asked him,

"is there any way that you could talk to my son

because he's really going astray?"

Mike would try to talk to them,

to direct them in a better path.

We learned this

is the reason Mike is at that location of highland gardens.

He was just stopping by a friend's house.

While interviewing miss Adams,

she indicated that, after he left,

he heard the gunshots, and she said she looked outside,

and she saw Mike laying next to the -- to his car.

She just was very upset.

Detectives finally understand

why Mike was in highland gardens.

Now they hope to talk to her son, Maurice.

While we were there, Maurice day came home.

He indicated that, at the time that Mike Beverly was killed,

he had already arrived at his girlfriend,

Teresa knight's, house sometime around 9:00.

He was very upset.

Maurice's girlfriend confirms he was with her.

Just when it seems any leads are drying up...

Jenkins.

...detectives receive an anonymous tip

that they hope will lead them to the murder weapon.

On October 18,

the two detectives assigned got information

to check the abandoned buildings over on boyle street,

that they may find some weapons over there.

So they started checking the abandoned buildings.

When they entered that house, they were checking the cabinets.

And none of those detectives opened the oven door.

And they found a gun wrapped in a t-shirt.

It happened to be a .44 caliber.

It was found to have four spent shell casings

within the revolver,

which would match up to Michael Beverly

being shot four times.

It was a huge find.

This could be the weapon used to kill Michael.

The gun and casings are sent to the lab to determine

if they match the bullets found in Mike's body at autopsy.

When the ballistics came back, it came back

as it was the murder weapon of Mike Beverly.

Investigators seem to be

one step closer to identifying the shooter.

They sent the t-shirt and the weapon for DNA.

If you can get a DNA match on somebody,

there's no doubt about it, you were there.

But when the results come back,

it's another dead end.

There is no DNA on the gun or t-shirt

to connect the murder weapon to the shooter,

it's actually hard to get some DNA.

It's not like you see on, you know, "CSI."

You have to really have a good sample.

Without being able to get any kind of forensic evidence,

it's very frustrating.

On October 23, 2001, seven days after his murder...

Thousands gathered to mourn

the passing of veteran police officer

Mike Beverly.

Mike's funeral was on the West Side of Chester

at the first pentecostal church, which, at the time

was the largest church in the city of Chester.

It still wasn't big enough.

There's police departments from Florida, Maine.

All over the country, they came,

and to pay their respects to one of their own.

Day of the funeral, that was another day to remember.

His funeral was like a scene out of a movie or something.

It was unbelievable. So many people came out.

So many people.

One of the hardest things was to see him laying there.

The second hardest thing was to see his family sitting there.

We all just held each other.

We cried so much that we couldn't cry anymore.

That was a very, very difficult funeral

to go through for myself, personally.

And I'm saying to myself,

I'll find that evidence, I will solve this case,

Michael Beverly will not have died in vain,

and we will not let his killer go.

We will find his killer no matter what.

We will find him.

By December 2001, two months have passed

since Mike Beverly's murder,

and Brian Rogers

is their number one suspect, but they still need proof

to tie him to Mike Beverly's murder.

Brian Rogers, like any other criminal,

never want to get caught.

The whole purpose of committing a crime

is hopefully to be successful in getting away with it.

Ray carr decides to take a big step

to ramp up the investigation.

I went into the u.S. Attorney's office,

I talk to the assistant United States attorney,

and I says, "we need to do something."

Updegraff: When I was introduced to the investigation,

it appeared to me that the state and local entities

were still working diligently to solve these crimes.

It's just they needed an extra boost.

Here's the situation -- nobody's talking to US.

Because they're afraid if they do,

then they'll wind up like Tracey Saunders or Mike Beverly.

So we have to create an environment where they will.

Thanks a lot.

We need to find out what they know.

Some of the witnesses says, "how is that going to ensure

that nobody's going to know what I'm saying?"

And I said, "because we're bringing in the whole neighborhood."

You weren't going to be singled out for being the one

that was brought into the police station.

Everybody's being brought into the police station.

There has never been a tactic where we shut down

a whole neighborhood.

It takes a great deal of resources, from the DEA,

the FBI, and the u.S. Attorney's office.

You had the Chester police department,

Delaware county cid, Pennsylvania state police.

We go in, we block off

the entrances and exits to highland gardens.

Every single home was knocked on

and they were given a subpoena.

For the next 18 months,

once a week, we brought 30 to 40 people down to Philadelphia,

and we interviewed every single one.

We even subpoenaed the boyle street gang members.

Some of them had no information at all.

Some of them did.

The dramatic and unprecedented efforts

of the multi-agency task force pay off.

A woman comes forward in the murder of Tracey Saunders,

the case Mike had been so driven to solve.

There was a witness that saw everything happen.

She saw Brian Rogers go up to the car

and fire two rounds at Tracey Saunders.

And she yelled out, "it was 'b,' it was 'b.'"

that is Brian Rogers' nickname on the street.

And I placed that witness into protective custody.

After an intense manhunt,

Brian Rogers is arrested for the murder of Tracey Saunders.

Realizing his best option

is to make a plea deal, he agrees to talk.

The person that was killed, Tracey Saunders,

was a federal witness.

It's a sentence of minimum of life,

could be a death penalty case

all depending on how it's packaged.

Brian Rogers confessed. "I killed Tracey Saunders.

I did it.

I shot her in the head. I'm confessing what I did."

And that doesn't happen very often.

But Rogers insists he didn't kill Mike.

Then he claims he knows who did.

And he tells US that, yes, he knows exactly what happened.

And he has a name,

one that the detectives have heard before

but never connected to Mike's murder.

And he tells US Maurice day did it.

Maurice day, the boy Mike Beverly

had been trying to keep out of trouble.

I thought to myself, I thought, "wow."

First thing was why? What is this about?

Mike was trying to help him.

Maurice had told detectives he was at his girlfriend,

Teresa's, the night of Mike's murder.

Maurice day said he had arrived at Teresa knight's house

sometime around 9:00, and Mike Beverly

was killed somewhere after 9:00.

Teresa had initially corroborated Maurice's story.

Teresa knight, when she gave US her statement,

indicated that Maurice had shown up at her house.

Police now tell her she'll be forced to testify

if she doesn't tell the truth.

Soon enough, she caves.

According to Teresa knight, Maurice,

he didn't arrive there until after 9:30.

And when he did arrive,

he was out of breath.

Alibi's out the window.

You're on my radar, pal.

Detectives track Maurice down

and bring him in for questioning.

I said, "I don't think you did it.

I know you did it. I've been doing this for years.

I talk to innocent people. I talk to guilty people.

I know you did it."

And he kept saying, "well, I don't know.

You don't have any evidence that I did it.

I don't see how you could think I did it."

We had no eyewitnesses and no physical evidence to come up

with any type of an arrest

in reference to the Michael Beverly case.

Detectives have no choice

but to release Maurice day.

To Mike's fellow officers and family,

it seems like the case is going nowhere.

Just seemed like it was at a snail's pace.

Time just started going longer, longer, and longer.

And the anticipation of getting that person to justice

seemed like it wasn't going to happen.

That's how you solve most cases, you get lucky

and you run into something that you really weren't looking for.

It just happens to jump out in front of you.

One year after Mike Beverly's murder,

in October 2002,

detectives get that lucky break

when a woman named Melanie Harris

is arrested on a drug possession charge.

And I was processing her, she said,

I got some information about the Beverly case.

I'll be honest, I take everything serious,

but after almost a year of getting dead ends,

I really didn't think we were going anywhere.

Elijah Thompson tells me that she has some information.

And she basically tells me that she is an eyewitness

to the homicide of Michael Beverly.

She was fearful for her life

and for her safety and the safety of her family.

That's why she didn't want to come forward.

But she said, "I'm already in trouble,

I've already been arrested,

so I'm just going to tell you what I saw."

Melanie claims she saw Mike leave Gloria Adams' home

moments before he was shot.

He was in the driveway.

And he had his keys in his hand.

She said the shooter was a person she knew as "ece."

She said a light-skinned, in her words, "young boy,

slim young boy."

Some things that she was saying,

only a person that was there would know.

A woman named Melanie Harris claims

she witnessed Mike Beverly's murder on October 16, 2001.

Not only that, she knows who his killer was.

She has referred to Maurice day.

And that's when detective nuttal said,

"we got what we need."

And that's when he went and put together

the warrant, the criminal complaint.

We knew that all roads lead back to Maurice day.

Even though you know that and you know it in your heart,

you still have to prove it.

All units, be advised.

Be on the lookout for Maurice day.

On October 12, 2002.

They hunt down Maurice in highland gardens.

Somebody saw him in the area, and he took off running.

We have eyes on the suspect.

They ran him down and ended up capturing him,

placing him under arrest.

Suspect is in custody.

Maurice day doesn't confess.

But they learned the details of Mike Beverly's tragic murder

from gang member Brian Rogers.

Mike Beverly had become friends with Gloria Adams

and was trying to keep Maurice day

from hanging out over on the boyle street boys' section.

The individuals in boyle street and the crew

were giving day a hard time about the police officer

always coming around looking for him.

Rogers: Yo, Maurice said Mike was his mom's friend,

and she wanted him to stop hanging out

with the boyle street boys, with US.

They started calling him "five-o."

Rogers: Corporal Beverly, I mean, he was around a lot.

Police kept showing up and arresting the boys,

but not Maurice?

We started calling him "911 boy."

He didn't like that.

They said, "every time you're here,

it's like somebody called 911, the cops show up."

He continued to escalate.

Rogers: Maurice said to me, "I rocked him."

One night in October, he says, "I'll take care of it,

I'll take care of it."

He says, "that's it, I'm going to rock him."

Maurice goes to an abandoned house

over near boyle street, takes a .44-caliber weapon

that belonged to one of the other boyle street members.

He takes that gun out...

He walks over, and he waits outside

behind a fence by his home.

And Mike Beverly walks out.

Maurice shot him in the face.

And then stood over him and shot him again in the torso.

Mike's gun was in his holster.

He didn't expect that whatsoever.

He knew this kid,

and I don't think he ever thought ever

that would happen from this kid.

There was anger. It was personal.

Mike Beverly never had a chance, never saw it coming.

Maurice day then goes to this girl's house

and tells her, "you're my alibi."

After he did it, he was very proud of what he did.

Don't mess with Maurice day anymore.

Every time I think about this, I get angry.

After a week-long trial, on march 2, 2004,

a Delaware county jury convicts

Maurice day of first-degree murder.

He is sentenced to life imprisonment.

This case was a slam dunk.

One witness, who was a relative of Maurice day,

came forward and said,

"I asked him if he did it, and he told me he did it."

Mike Beverly would be pleased to know that, on April 12, 2006,

three members of the boyle street gang

are put behind bars for the murder of young mother

Tracey Saunders.

The guys that didn't make a good choice are doing life sentences.

Brian Rogers received a sentence of 42 years.

Mike's wife said to me, at the end of this,

she said, "thank you."

Shortly after, there was an older lady

that was sitting on her porch.

She said, "I'm so sorry what happened to that young man.

But I have to say, this is the first time in years

that I could sit out here on my porch with comfort.

Thank you."

I said, "Mike, even though this happened,

something still good came out of it because of you."

Mike should had a career,

he should have enjoyed his family,

should have enjoyed his kids, and he's never going to get

the opportunity to do that, and that's wrong.

When your brother does not there to see

his daughter graduate from college,

he's not there to be there for his son

and supporting him in the military,

he's not there to see his grandkids being born,

there's still a hole left

in all of our hearts for Mike.