Wednesday, Jan. 30, 1985, started off as a typical day for Danny Michael Hall, who rose that morning to go rabbit hunting with his father Wade.

He planned to report later in the day to his second-shift job at a Pilot Mountain textile mill. But by early afternoon, Hall, 29, was dead, the victim of a shooting that occurred when he walked into the middle of an armed robbery at a store on Cook School Road.

His wife Vickie, then 21, had waited outside in their red pickup, and today remembers hearing “pop, pop” sounds — not knowing Hall had just been shot. She then saw her wounded husband struggle outside.

“Mike was strong enough to get back to the truck to let me know he had been shot,” she recalled, as the robbers exited the store while firing more rounds.

Meanwhile, Surry Emergency Medical Service paramedics had rushed to the scene, but the shooting victim died in an ambulance on the way to the hospital.

Though the murder happened 25 years ago today, Hall’s widow — Vickie Puckett Hall Poindexter — is still coming to grips with the events on that late-January day.

“I actually saw a counselor yesterday, who recommended that I see another counselor,” Poindexter said this week. She added that with the anniversary of her husband’s murder approaching, the last two months have been an especially difficult period.

Haunted By Day’s Events

Something that has troubled Poindexter through the years involves those “what if?” questions that often plaguing persons who’ve experienced such tragedies. Chief among them: What could have been done differently that day which would have led to another outcome with Danny Michael Hall remaining alive?

Poindexter said she and a friend, Teresa Inman, had drove to Mount Airy on the morning of Jan. 30 to run some errands while Hall was rabbit hunting with his father. They returned around lunch time, and the couple decided to go to a sandwich shop in Pilot Mountain informally known as the Squeeze Box.

Hall’s wife also worked second-shift at the now-defunct Surry Industries plant in the town, where he was employed as a fixer. At the time of the robbery and murder, the couple resided at Rt. 1, Pilot Mountain.

In keeping with a normal routine, the Halls went to Arnold’s Amoco, a convenience store on Cook School Road, to cash a check.

Poindexter, who later remarried and now lives in Rural Hall, said she “absolutely” has replayed the events of Jan. 30, 1985, time and time again to devise a scenario that wouldn’t have ended with her husband’s death.

For example, had she ate lunch that day in Mount Airy, or brought food home for the couple, they would have avoided a trip that included the fateful visit to Arnold’s Amoco.

Poindexter admitted that she allowed such thoughts to consume her in the period after the tragedy. “I did for a while, but I try not to now,” she said.

Before the Halls arrived at the store about 1 p.m., two men had come to the business and tried to buy beer before demanding money, according to news reports from January 1985.

“Mike walked in the store only to be shot in the back as he entered,” Poindexter recalled. “We were unaware the store was actually being robbed as he walked in.”

Other people were inside at the time, including owner Arnold “Shorty” Bryant. One witness has said that the robbers were preparing to shoot Bryant at the exact moment Hall appeared.

As soon as he realized a robbery was in progress, Hall tried to leave but was pulled back in and fatally wounded by one of the men. They subsequently fled the scene with about $1,000 stolen from the store.

Although the shooting victim managed to reach his vehicle, “I was unable to get him in the truck,” Poindexter remembered. “The ambulance arrived to take him to the hospital. He did not survive.”

Three men later were arrested and charged in connection with the robbery and shooting. The man who actually pulled the trigger originally received the death penalty, but that later was changed to life in prison.

Poindexter said one thing that troubles her about those convicted surrounds excuses given about drug addiction being a factor. “They all use the excuse of using drugs — but to me, be responsible for what you do in your actions and don’t blame it on using drugs.”

Hall “A Hero”

The Hall couple had no children at the time of the incident. The next year, in October 1986, Vickie Hall was remarried. “And I never really had a grieving process,” said Poindexter, who eventually would have three children with her new husband.

The Forsyth County resident, who now works as a nursing assistant in the obstetrics-gynecology field, hopes people won’t use today’s occasion to remember Danny Michael Hall’s horrible death, but “what a hero he was.”

Poindexter believes Hall’s entering the store at the time he did provided enough of a distraction to keep more people from being harmed. “There were other lives that would have been lost that day if it had not been for my husband walking in that store,” she said.

“He was a wonderful, loving, caring man who would do anything for anyone. He is missed tremendously daily by many people.”

Contact Tom Joyce at tjoyce@mtairynews.com or at 719-1924.