Twenty Years After Robert Langley’s Line-of-Duty Death, UPD Still Carries His Call Number

Robert Langley University Police Department officer, was 30 years old when he became the first UPD officer killed in the line of duty. Two decades later, the department still remembers him through a retired call number, a commemorative pin and a scholarship in his name.

A traffic stop on West Jackson Avenue

On Oct. 21, 2006, Langley stopped a vehicle for speeding on West Jackson Avenue near the Ole Miss campus. The driver, Daniel Cummings, an Ole Miss student at the time, accelerated while Langley was at the window. Langley was dragged about 200 yards and thrown from the vehicle.

He suffered severe head injuries and was taken to a Memphis hospital. Doctors found no brain activity, and life support was removed. Lisa Langley, his widow, made the decision with her pastor present.

Cummings was arrested shortly after the incident. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter by culpable negligence and was sentenced to 20 years. In 2021, he was released under the Earned Release Supervision Program.

A life before law enforcement

Langley came to UPD with an unusual background. He had worked as a certified mortician and had served in the Mississippi National Guard, including a deployment to Afghanistan. UPD was his first law enforcement job, and he later became a K-9 officer.

He and his wife Lisa had two sons, Robbie and Cory, and two stepdaughters, Maci Cheyenne and Anne Claire. Lisa has described him as honest, full of life and a true friend, and said being a police officer was everything to him.

Memories from a training officer

Lynn Webb was Langley’s training officer when Langley joined UPD around 2003. They worked the same shift, did bike and motorcycle patrol, and escorted the Ole Miss football team on game days. Off duty, they hunted, fished and rode four-wheelers together. The night before Langley was killed, the two spent an hour hitting baseballs in an unlocked stadium batting cage.

Webb was the shift supervisor when the officer-down call came. He has said he knew deep inside it was Robert, and that serving as shift supervisor that night was the hardest experience of his career. He remembers Langley as always smiling, kind-hearted and willing to help.

Investigation and support

Joey East, now Lafayette County sheriff and a former Oxford Police major, notified Lisa of the injury. He has said the notification was difficult because his own sons were the same age as Langley’s. East assisted the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, and video from a Double Quick store helped reconstruct the incident. Investigators also examined substances the driver had taken.

The Mississippi Law Enforcement Alliance for Peer Support provided peer support to officers. Lisa has said UPD never left the family’s side, and the community and church supported them after the death.

How UPD keeps B5 present

UPD retired Langley’s call number, B5, and officers wear a commemorative B5 pin on their uniforms. Plaques honoring him are displayed at the department. The university established a scholarship in his memory for law enforcement and criminal justice students, and UPD continued giving Christmas gifts and donations to Langley’s sons.

In 2010, the Oxford Board of Aldermen authorized two memorial markers. A roadside marker was unveiled in 2015 off West Jackson Avenue.

Jane McGregor-Mahan, a UPD captain who worked with Langley for six to eight months, remembers him as energetic and helpful, and recalls how proud he was when introducing his children.

Twenty years on, Lisa Langley still thinks about her husband and misses him. She has said she would tell him he would be proud of his children.