Shot His Fellow Officer
Posted by Laurel on 02 Feb 2007 | Tagged as: Legal, 1890s
[From the Brooklyn Eagle, 02 February 1895. Page 1 news, even in Brooklyn.]
Then a Holyoke, Mass., Policeman
Calmly Killed Himself.
Both Fell Dead Together.
Holyoke, Mass., February 2.—A tragedy for which at present there appears no reason, occurred this morning in the police station in this city. Officer Patrick J. Devereaux shot and mortally wounded ex-Police Captain Maurice D. Fenton. He then turned the weapon on himself and drove a bullet through his own brain which killed him instantly. Fenton died in a very few minutes.
The affair occurred in the patrolman’s room in the city building just about 8 o’clock this morning. The officers were assembling at their customary time. Patrolman Devereaux entered the hallway and passed Lieutenant P.B. Sullivan. He spoke a pleasant word to him and after a bit of conversation Devereaux entered the policeman’s room. There he found Officer Fenton seated next to an iron post and leaning his head against the pillar. So far as known no word passed between the two men.
Devereaux hesitated not an instant. He marched up to the sitting man, drew his revolver from his hip pocket and shot him in the head, the ball striking the temple. Then, without waiting to see the result of the shot he placed he muzzle of the weapon to his forehead, pulled the trigger again and sent a bullet through his own brains.
