fallenofficers

Maricopa County, Arizona
Fallen Police Officers

In the Line of Duty

Dep. Almon W. Dana died in the line of duty: 04-09-1922
Two motorcycle Deputies attempted to set a speed trap near 22nd Street on the Tempe Road (Van Buren). About 2 a.m. a fast-moving car coming from the East passed Dep. Frank Bell who immediately engaged in pursuit. Dep. Dana, at the western end of the trap, heard the car's engine and pulled out from a side road where he was hiding. Just missing the speeding car, he collided with Deputy Bell who was following at full speed. As was customary in those days, motorcycles in pursuit did not use lights and they had no radios. Almon Dana, who was pinned under his machine, died the next day from his injuries. Frank Bell, though seriously hurt, was thrown clear and survived. The speeder disappeared and was never caught.

Dep. Lee . Wright died in the line of duty: 01-29-1930
On the morning of January 14, 1930, Deputy Lee Wright participated in an attempt to stop a car carrying three kidnappers and their hostage, Pinal County Deputy Joe Chapman. When Chapman tried to arrest Irene Schroeder (The Trigger Woman) in Florence, he was overcome by Glenn Dague and Joel Wells, akaVernon Ackerman, an ex-convict from Ohio. Wells was traveling with Schroeder and Dague who were fleeing a Pennsylvania murder charge. The gun toting trio sped out of town in a stolen Chrysler coupe complete with rumble seat. During a gunfight at a roadblock in front of Chandler's San Marcos Hotel, Chapman was wounded, but he escaped and survived. In the same exchange of fire, the shots that struck Deputy Wright proved fatal, though he lingered on for sixteen days. The suspects fled the scene in Chandler, but all three were captured with the aid of volunteer pilot Thomas Metcalf flying a monoplane and using Deputy Stanley Price and a reporter as spotters. Ackerman was sentenced to life in prison for Wright's murder while Schroeder and Dague died in a Newcastle electric chair for killing Pennsylvania Highway Patrolman Brady Paul.

Sp. Dep. Edward . Roberts died in the line of duty: 07-21-1937
On a July morning Special Deputy Roberts was summoned to Southwest Cotton Camp #53 in Litchfield Park in response to reports that J.R. Murdoch, foreman of the camp had been killed by a drunken employee he had fired. As Roberts hurried toward the camp, the enraged laborer stepped out from behind a cabin and fired a shot. The wounded deputy slumped to the ground, unable to defend himself while his assailant grabbed Roberts' own gun, using it to fire a second and fatal shot. Before backup from the Sheriff's Office got to the scene, a foreman from a nearby camp arrived and killed the slayer in a pitched gun battle.

Dep. Burtice W. Wickstrum died in the line of duty: 01-08-1951
Deputy Wickstrum died of injuries suffered in a late night collision at the intersection of Third Avenue and Fillmore Street. He and Deputy C.H. Russell were rushing to a reported sighting of a wanted killer when the accident occurred. Wickstrum was thrown from the patrol car and run over by its rear wheels after it struck a tree. Deputy Russell escaped injury; the other driver recovered; and the reported sighting proved to be the wrong man.

Dep. Gerald Barnes died in the line of duty: 10-05-1957
Deputy Gerald Barnes drowned while pinned in the wreckage of the Sheriff's four passenger Tri-Pacer after it crashed into the Arizona Canal seven miles northeast of Scottsdale. Barnes and Deputy Frank Grove were serving as scanners while Sgt. Paul Mullenix piloted the plane in a search for a stolen truck and a car used in a holdup. When the low flying plane stalled, its landing gear hit a power line and toppled the plane into a four-foot deep canal. Witnesses irrigating a nearby field helped rescue the pilot and the Deputy in the front seat, but Deputy Barnes was trapped in a rear seat, and they were unable to reach him in time.

Dep. Warren . LaRue died in the line of duty: 01-18-1971
In a single day, two veteran deputies were killed while serving a civil writ of attachment. At 1300 hours they arrived at 5344 East Van Buren Street to repossess a mobile home in satisfaction for an $833 bank judgment. The owner shot Deputy LaRue in the back four times and then engaged in a shoot-out with Deputy Stone. All three died at the scene. Both of these line-of-duty deaths had sad and unusual circumstances. Deputy LaRue was only fifty-nine days short of his twenty-five year retirement, and Deputy Stone's son, a Phoenix Police officer, had been killed in a motorcycle accident only three weeks earlier while going to the aid of a downed officer.

Dep. Rex . Stone died in the line of duty: 01-18-1971
In a single day, two veteran deputies were killed while serving a civil writ of attachment. At 1300 hours they arrived at 5344 East Van Buren Street to repossess a mobile home in satisfaction for an $833 bank judgment. The owner shot Deputy LaRue in the back four times and then engaged in a shoot-out with Deputy Stone. All three died at the scene. Both of these line-of-duty deaths had sad and unusual circumstances. Deputy LaRue was only fifty-nine days short of his twenty-five year retirement, and Deputy Stone's son, a Phoenix Police officer, had been killed in a motorcycle accident only three weeks earlier while going to the aid of a downed officer.

Dep. Ralph . Butler died in the line of duty: 06-12-1972
On a summer Sunday morning Deputy Butler was patrolling Highway 60 west of Wickenburg when he received a radio call for assistance at a double fatality accident near Wittman. After turning his car around off the pavement, he pulled back on the road directly in the path of a large tractor-trailer rig. Pinned in the wreckage, Butler waited more than an hour and a half for an ambulance to come from Phoenix because the local emergency vehicles were in service twenty-five miles away at the earlier accident. After emergency treatment in Wickenburg Deputy Butler was taken by helicopter to Phoenix for surgery, but the next evening he died of injuries received in the collision.

Res. Dep. Jim L. Epp died in the line of duty: 03-01-1978
A posseman with more than twenty years as a Maricopa County Sheriff's Office volunteer, Reserve Deputy Jim Epp drowned while attempting to rescue two women trapped in their car when a Cave Creek Wash flooded. Epp was carried away while trying to attach a chain to their car, and his body was found about a mile downstream several hours later. The two women were brought to shore safely after the flood receded.

Cpl. Darrell McCloud died in the line of duty: 05-13-1985
Corporal "Bud" McCloud was on a routine traffic call at 2100 hours when his life was taken in a collision at the intersection of 107th Avenue and Camelback. Passers-by pulled him from his patrol car and administered CPR until paramedics arrived, and then he was flown to the hospital where he died of his injuries. Ironically, McCloud died during Law Enforcement Memorial week.

Dep. Vernon Marconnet died in the line of duty: 06-30-1988
On patrol near 35th Avenue and Carver Road, Deputy Marconnet stopped to investigate two suspicious vehicles. He found a father and three sons who had been drinking and arguing. Just after he called for backup, 9-1-1 received a call that an officer was in trouble. Police arrived to find the Deputy dead beside his car. When Marconnet was putting the older man into the patrol car, one of the sons grabbed the deputy's gun and gave it to his father. Deputy Marconnet was killed with his own weapon, and all four family members were tried for his murder.

Sgt. Patrick J. Riley died in the line of duty: 03-11-1994
Sgt. Patrick Riley was struck by a dump truck and killed while directing traffic at a construction site on 64th Street and University Drive. Though he was working an off-duty job, his death qualifies as line-of-duty because he was authorized by his supervisor to perform this function restricted to peace officers. Riley had directed a truck to proceed through an intersection and make a left turn. During the turn, the left rear fender struck him, throwing the Sergeant to the ground. He was run over by both sets of rear tires and died approximately two hours later.

Dep. Eduardo M. Gonzales died in the line of duty: 08-28-1995
While joining the pursuit of a burglary suspect, Deputy Gonzales swerved to avoid hitting a car entering the intersection at 59th Avenue and Lower Buckeye Road. His patrol car slammed into a parked cement truck, and Gonzales was killed at the scene.

Dep. Kenneth R. Blair died in the line of duty: 09-28-1995
Responding to a domestic violence call at a Glendale apartment, Deputy Blair called for backup but decided to go in alone when he heard a woman screaming. Blair was gunned down as he entered the residence. The gunman, who was standing in a bedroom doorway, shot the Deputy once in the head and three times in the chest before using the last bullet to kill himself. Deputy Blair had no chance to use the pepper spray in his hand, and the bullets that struck him all landed above his bullet-proof vest. Backup arrived just seven minutes after his call.