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Ten officers have been shot in line of duty since 1911By The News staffHutchinson Police Officer Mike Robinson became the 10th officer shot in the line of duty here since the organization of law enforcement in Hutchinson and Reno County.Since 1872, four officers for Hutchinson or Reno County have been killed, three of them in shootings, according to a 1997 story in The Hutchinson News, based on interviews with local law-and-order historians.The following is a summary of those shooting incidents:• 1911 - A suspect being escorted to the police station shot Deputy Thomas Simpson Fowler five times, killing him. The suspect, Henry Bowers, was caught and sent to prison, where he died of natural causes five years later.• 1923 - A car thief shot Officer Edward Cunningham in the face while the officer attempted to arrest him. Cunningham survived, and the thief went to prison.• 1924 - Patrol Lester Huston was shot in the hand after a struggle with a Wichita man who pulled a gun after he had been arrested and placed in the sidecar of Huston’s motorcycle. The officer survived; the suspect went to prison.• 1924 - Officer Reason Sherman Monroe was shot nine times and killed after intervening in a domestic disturbance in which a husband was pistol-whipping his wife.• 1933 - Patrolman John Keller was shot once in the stomach and twice in the arm while answering a robbery call at the Western Union Office in the Leon Hotel, 14 East 2nd. Keller survived, and the three robbers were captured and went to prison.• 1956 - The driver of a stolen car shot Hutchinson Police Lt. Shelby Comstock in the chest after the suspect was stopped in the 2800 block of East 4th. Comstock died a year later from complications with pneumonia, and the shooter was never caught.• 1972 - Patrol Officer Kenneth Kennedy and Sgt. Michael J. Col-dren were trying to subdue a suspected bootlegger when the suspect’s girlfriend opened fire. Kennedy was shot in the chest and back and killed. Coldren was shot in the face and lived.The woman was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to prison. K-61 is named Ken Kennedy Freeway in honor of the slain lawman.• 1974 - Police Capt. Jimmy R. Johnson is shot responding to a robbery attempt at Mammel’s Grocery Store, 5th and Monroe. A suspect fired as Johnson arrived on the scene, the bullet entering through Johnson’s car window, striking a notepad and comb in his shirt pocket before hitting him in the chest.Johnson survived the superficial wound, and the suspect was taken into custody, convicted and sent to prison.
Newspaper Details
Hutchinson News
Hutchinson, Kansas, US
Tue, Apr 26, 2005
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Hutchinson P.
KS, USA 23 Aug 2023
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