Last officer death 20 years ago today

The Sentinel-Record/File photo LINE OF DUTY: Hot Springs police Officer Chris Anderson died from two gunshot wounds 20 years ago today. He was the last law enforcement officer killed in the line of duty in Garland County.
The Sentinel-Record/File photo LINE OF DUTY: Hot Springs police Officer Chris Anderson died from two gunshot wounds 20 years ago today. He was the last law enforcement officer killed in the line of duty in Garland County.

Today marks 20 years since the last law enforcement officer, Chris Anderson of the Hot Springs Police Department, was killed in the line of duty in Garland County.

photo

A file photo of the Garland County Sheriff's Department memorial that lists the names of law enforcement officials who were killed in the line of duty since the early 1900s. - Photo by Richard Rasmussen of The Sentinel-Record

Anderson was killed by two gunshot wounds as he attempted to serve a routine traffic violation warrant on Eric Thrower at a home on Lafayette Street.

More than a thousand police officers from 45 departments across Arkansas, many of them in full-dress uniform with black tape across their badges, filled the former Hot Springs Convention Auditorium for his funeral.

"The Family Man," a poem by Anderson's daughter, Amanda, who was 16 at the time, became the eulogy:

He is a man that taught us the love of life,

He cared for others as they cared for him,

His daughter, his wife, they were his life.

His strength, his love, his pride, his joy,

This is what made the man we called the true family man.

Since the early 1900s, nine law enforcement officers have been killed in the line of duty. Six died of gunshot wounds, and three died from other causes. A memorial stands at the Garland County Sheriff's Department, 525 Ouachita Ave., with the names of those killed while serving.

"During my career of 35 years in law enforcement, I'm only aware of three deputies and officers who were shot in the line of duty and survived," Sheriff Mike McCormick said.

In the early 1900s, Hot Springs law enforcement tangled with desperadoes and livestock thieves. With the government implementing prohibition in 1919 with the 18th Amendment, Hot Springs saw an influx of organized crime through gangsters such as Al Capone, a regular to Hot Springs, gamblers and bootleggers in the 1920s.

After being detained for stealing horses, George and Oscar Chitwood produced pistols while being escorted to jail. A shootout between the "Chitwood Boys" and Sheriff Jake Houpt and Deputy Sidney Houpt transpired at the courthouse. The exchange of fire led to the death of George Chitwood and the wounding of Jake Houpt, who died Aug. 17, 1910, three days later. Sidney Houpt was also shot, but survived and was appointed sheriff as his brother's successor.

Ten years later, Slaughter Bridge, located on Spring Street over Gulpha Creek, was the setting for an infamous shootout on Oct. 14, 1920. Desperadoes called the "Slaughter Gang," led by Tom Slaughter, got into a shootout with 47-year-old Deputy Sheriff Row Brown, who was shot and killed. According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, the shootout was initiated after law enforcement responded to a disturbance where Slaughter, accompanied by four men and two women, were on a drinking spree. After the incident, the bridge became known as Slaughter Bridge.

An officer with "a winning streak with his hands instead of his pistol," Hot Springs police Chief Robert "Oscar" Sullivan served as chief for four years before his death. Traveling gambler Hubert Coates shot and killed Sullivan on April 14, 1924.

During the night of March 12, 1927, bootleggers ambushed and shot National Park Service Ranger James Cary. A search party found Cary's body the next morning. He, too, was in his fourth year in his law enforcement position.

Garland County law enforcement experienced an almost 60-year gap until another official was shot and killed in the line of duty, since the next officer death, in the mid-1950s, was caused by an explosion. Police Lt. Columbus Garrett and two other citizens were killed during a disposal of 27 cases of dynamite at the Turtle Street Rock Quarry off Whittington Avenue.

On July 24, 1984, a gunman shot Hot Springs police Sgt. Wayne Warwick four times before killing four other people, then himself, the same day. Warwick died Sept. 5, 1986, from a blood clot stemming from his earlier injuries.

The gunman, Wayne Lee Crossley, described by officials as "a slouchy, bearded loner with a police record", had been barred from several lounges. One of them was The Other Place, a dark, cozy bar connected by a narrow hall to the former Grand Central Motor Lodge's coffee shop and registration desk.

Warwick stopped Crossley's car on Ouachita Avenue across from the Garland County Court House for a routine traffic check shortly before 6 p.m. on that day. Crossley emerged from the car and shot Warwick in the back, neck and leg, then drove to the Grand Central at the northeast corner of Grand and Central avenues.

Crossley entered the hotel's bar and began firing with a .45-caliber pistol and a shotgun. After shooting five persons, four of whom died, Crossley fatally shot himself through the heart.

While assisting Saline County law enforcement with a manhunt on April 23, 1991, sheriff's Reserve Sgt. Bill Barudy and Patrol Capt. Al Riley were killed in a helicopter crash. Two juveniles who were suspected in several burglaries in Hot Spring, Saline and Garland counties were being sought in the manhunt.

Local on 02/12/2016

Upcoming Events