The first warrant they attempted was at 2807 Pillsbury Avenue South to recover stolen property. They had information that the suspect at this residence, Riley Housley III, was also involved in narcotics violations. After repeatedly ringing the doorbell and knocking on the front door of this dwelling, the officers were convinced that no one was inside. The decision was made to do a forced entry on the side door. After several attempts to kick the door open, the officers found it necessary to use a sledge hammer on the door before it would yield.

Once the door was opened, a number of officers, led by SGT. MACK, entered the darkened dwelling. The announcement was made several times, “Police officers – we have a search warrant.” Suddenly a rapid succession of shots rang out, with one of them striking Sgt. Skomra in the abdomen. Skomra quickly exited the house and was aided by other officers.

At 1448 hours a transmission came into the MPD complaint room, “Squad 695 Emergency, 2807 Pillsbury, OFFICER SHOT AND DOWN, CODE THREE.” Simultaneously, the suspect Housley was on the telephone with the complaint room saying, “Get the police to 2807 Pillsbury, I just shot someone breaking into my house.” Officers could hear the suspect on the phone calling for the police, and they eventually convinced Housley that they were the police and he then threw down his gun and surrendered.

At this point the officers found SGT. MACK lying on his back on the kitchen floor. He was unconscious and had suffered bullet wounds to his lower abdominal area and to his neck. Officers on the scene administered first aid to both of the wounded
officers until the ambulance arrived.

Sgt. Skomra recovered from his wounds and eventually returned to duty. SGT. MACK suffered severe brain damage and was in a coma for approximately 22 months. SGT. MACK amazed his doctors by recovering consciousness, although paralyzed and unable to speak, he eventually learned how to communicate by means of an alphabet board.

Riley Housley III was charged with two counts of attempted murder in the second degree. Housley maintained that he did not know SGT. MACK and the others were police officers when they came into his house. The jury found Housley guilty of first degree assault and he was sentenced to not more than two years. The sentence was then stayed pending appeal and Housley was released on bail. After two years the Minnesota Supreme Court reversed his conviction, ruling that the prosecutors had not
proven beyond a reasonable doubt that he was not acting in self defense. This reversal made any further prosecution unobtainable. Housley never did a day for his crime.

On November 2, 1986 at 1855 hours, SGT. DAVID MACK died. SGT. MACK was 43 years old at the time of his death. Doctors determined that SGT. MACK’s death was caused by complications from the gunshot wounds he had received on December 13, 1979.

According to Deputy Chief Leonard Brucciani, SGT. DAVID MACK was a good narcotics officer and a team player. It’s one of the unfortunate things of the job. There was never any doubt about his bravery, and he was respected by everyone who knew
him.

SGT. DAVID MACK was memorialized by his fellow officers at St. Anthony’s Church during a formal mass. After the mass,
the mile and one-half long funeral procession went to Fort Snelling where SGT. MACK was laid to rest. Officers who worked with Sgt. MACK and officers from around the state came to pay their last respects to a fallen comrade.

Minneapolis Police Lieutenant Inno H. Suek, 41, a 6-year veteran of the force, was shot and killed during a hold-up on September 30, 1972, at Hum’s Liquor Store, 2126 Lyndale Ave. South, where he worked part-time.

Suek, the father of four children, was shot during a struggle with one of two men police said were attempting to hold up the store. According to police reports, the suspects entered the store about closing time at 10:00 p.m. There were several customers and employees in the store at the time.

One of the suspects walked up behind Suek and pointed a pistol at his head, according to police. The officer wheeled and struggled for the weapon and was shot once in the chest during the struggle.

Police said it appeared Suek was shot with a .38 caliber weapon. The officer’s service revolver was missing and police assume the men took it. It was not known whether the officer was shot with his revolver or by the weapon carried by one of the men.

The suspects ran out the back of the store without getting any money and fled in a green Olds, which was found about 90 minutes later about half a mile away.

Suek was pronounced dead at the scene.

Motorcycle
Patrolman Clayton J. SEAWELL, a member of the East Side station detail,
was fatally injured on May 4, 1929, when he collided with an automobile
at Fifth Street and Seventh Avenue NE.

Patrolman
SEAWELL was on his way to the station after completing his day’s work,
when he crashed into the rear of the car. He was thrown headfirst into
the pavement, fracturing his skull.

Rushing to General
Hospital with the injured policeman, a police call car was struck by
another machine at University and East Hennepin Avenues. The cars were
only slightly damaged. Patrolman SEAWELL died a few minutes after
reaching the hospital.

SEAWELL, 31 years of age, was a
veteran of the World War and had been a member of the police department
for over 5 years. He was buried at St. Anthony Cemetery on May 8, 1929.

Patrolman SEAWELL lived at 640 Johnson Street NE with
his wife and five small children. One son, Thomas Seawell, who was 3
years old at the time of his father’s death, went on to join the
Minneapolis Police Department himself on January 17, 1955. He retired
after 28 years of service on June 3, 1983.

On
December 8, 1930, Minneapolis police detectives, acting on a tip,
raided an apartment at 825 Eighth Street So., and wiped out a gunmen’s
hideout just organized in Minneapolis. Police arrested one man and also
seized a fully stocked gang arsenal, containing shotguns, pistols,
ammunition, tear gas pistols, and a submachine gun.

After
the raid, Detectives Harry E. PARKER and Dan Noonan were “planted” in
the apartment in an attempt to capture the two Chicago “big shots” who
were being sought as the leaders of the gang.

All
police detectives in the city were ordered out on special duty, under a
command to search every apartment house in the city and pick up every
man unable to give a full account of himself.

The next
day, December 9th, about 6 p.m., Detectives PARKER and Noonan, still
hidden in the apartment, were preparing to eat their dinner when they
heard footsteps in the hallway and there was a knock at the door. Both
men drew pistols as they stepped against the wall so they would be
shielded by the door when it opened.

Detective PARKER swung the door open and two men stepped in.

“Detectives,”
PARKER said tersely as he and Noonan stepped from behind the door,
pistols leveled at the two men. The first man whipped a pistol from his
pocket and fired. Detective PARKER’s pistol barked simultaneously.

Detective
PARKER dropped to the floor, a bullet in his abdomen. The gunman
staggered across the room, a bullet in his neck. He raised his pistol
again. Detective Noonan fired. The gunman dropped in his tracks, dead,
another bullet in his head.

Detective Noonan then swung
like a flash to the second man. The second gunman had his hand inside
his coat, about to draw. “Drop ’em,” Noonan snapped. The second gunman
grinned, held up his hands. Noonan called police and an ambulance.

Detective PARKER was rushed to General Hospital, and an emergency operation was performed. His condition was critical.

He gave a fellow officer a statement. It read:

“Do
you believe you are going to die, Parker?” “Yes, I think he got me. We
were waiting in the apartment. We heard a rap on the door. We waited.
The door opened and this one (the dead man) aimed at me and I aimed at
him. We both shot at the same time. Before I shot I told him we were
detectives. I had my gun in one hand and my badge in the other.”

The
dead gunman was taken to the morgue. He was identified as Francis
Farley, alleged bank robber. The captive was identified as Walter
Fielund, who was turned over to Sioux City, Iowa authorities to face
bank robbery charges.

James Kane, the first man
captured in the raid on the apartment, was identified as one of the
bandits who robbed the Layton Park State Bank of Milwaukee. Wisconsin
officials extradited him from Minneapolis to stand trial on the bank
robbery charge at Milwaukee.

At the hospital, Detective
PARKER’s condition showed improvement, and he was moved from General
Hospital to St. Barnabus. There he continued to improve.

The
week before Christmas, members of his family were planning on taking a
Christmas tree to the hospital and having their Christmas party at his
bedside.

Detective PARKER’s condition took a turn for
the worse, however, and, according to hospital attendants, he said he
was afraid he was going to die. It was then that he decided he wanted
to be taken to his home, so that he might be with his wife and two
children for Christmas.

“I don’t know whether I can
last until Christmas,” he smiled to hospital attendants shortly before
he was moved. “But I’ll try it.”

Detective PARKER
became unconscious shortly after he reached his home at 3 p.m. on
December 23rd, and died from his wounds at 11 a.m. on Christmas Eve
day. The home is at 4150 Sheridan Avenue No. With him when he died were
his wife and son and daughter. In the next room was a Christmas tree.
Detective PARKER was 38 years old. He had been on the police department
for 10 years. He was promoted to the rank of detective on January 1,
1929.

Interment took place on December 27, 1930 at Crystal Lake cemetery in North Minneapolis.

He was taken to Fairview Hospital, but released several days later.

Officer KARPINSKI was readmitted to the hospital on May 19th, due to complications. He died two days later on May 21, 1941.

A microscopic examination of the spine of Patrolman KARPINSKI was conducted at the University of Minnesota on order of the Hennepin County Coroner.

The examination was to determine whether death was caused by his injured spine, which doctors said had mended.

Officer KARPINSKI had been a police officer for 11 years, and was a veteran of the World War.

He had lived at 1906 Quincy Street Northeast with his wife. KARPINSKI was buried at Hillside Cemetery on May 23, 1941.

After the accident, Officer Olson gave police a complete description of the car he was chasing, saying it was traveling about 65 miles an hour at Forty-Sixth and Lyndale Avenue North.

Officer OLSON’S motorcycle was going about 55 miles an hour when he struck the truck. He was catapulted through the air by the impact and suffered head injuries and a broken shoulder and
a broken right leg.

Officer OLSON struck the truck of a driver who made a left turn off Lyndale Avenue into a driveway which police said was unauthorized and which had been ordered closed July 21st by the City Engineer’s office.

The driver of the truck said he made the turn after the speeder passed him, but he did not see the motorcycle officer. Officer OLSON struck the rear of the truck. Police said the driver would not be prosecuted.

Officer OLSON was 32 years old and had been on the police force only 10 months. He resided at 3443 Twenty-Fifth Avenue South with his wife.

Funeral services were held at Bethel Lutheran Church, Seventeenth Avenue South and Thirty-Second Street, with burial in Lakewood Cemetery on August 11, 1941.

One of the victims, who was home on leave from the Navy, had successfully negotiated the falls two days earlier. Higher water and a heavier current in the river, however, turned the second attempt to disaster.

Minneapolis police and the Coast Guard immediately began a search for the two missing boys without success, and they continued into the next day, June 7th, in an effort to locate their bodies.

This relentless search cost the life of Minneapolis Police Sergeant John W. O’NEIL, 47 years old, who fell from a sluiceway at the west end of the falls and drowned while attempting to recover the victim’s canoe.

Sergeant O’NEIL was a twenty-one year veteran of the police department. He lived with his wife and children at 4219 Twentieth Avenue South.

A police honor guard escorted Sergeant O’NEIL’S body when funeral services were held on June 10th at St. Helena’s Church, Forty-Third Street and Thirty-Third Avenue South. Burial was at Sunset Memorial Park.

A memorial fund for the family of Sergeant O’NEIL was set up by the Minneapolis Civic & Commerce Association.

“Sergeant O’NEIL lost his life because he was serving the city beyond requirements of duty,” the president of the association said in announcing the fund. “Although this officer was entitled to retirement with a life income, he chose to remain during the manpower shortage resulting from the inroads of war,” he said.

“We know there are a number of firms and citizens who desire to bring this man’s family some measure of relief and we have agreed to receive donations to this memorial fund. This is a voluntary movement and no drive is contemplated. Donors should make their checks payable to the fund and present them to the association.

The association president, who made a donation of $100 on behalf of the Coca Cola Bottling Company, said the association has acted in this capacity of similar occasions and any sum is acceptable.

Wicklund joined the Police Department a little over a year after the U.S. entry into World War II. Because he was married with three children and because being a police officer was considered a vital occupation during war time, Wicklund was unsuccessful in his first three attempts to enlist. Finally, on Aug. 1, 1944, he was accepted into the U.S. Marine Corps.

Following basic and advanced infantry training, he was assigned to Company H, Third Battalion of the 29th Marines of the Sixth Division which was sent in as part of the invasion of Okinawa.

He was with his machine gun squad in action against the Japanese forces on June 6, 1945. Wicklund had personally accounted for several enemy killed when he was hit in the head by a sniper’s bullet. He died instantly.

Wicklund, 30, who lived at 3923 Upton Ave. N. in Minneapolis with his wife and children, was buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.

He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, Victory Medal World War 11 and a Presidential Unit Citation with ribbon bar and star for “extra ordinary heroism in action.”

One of the youths, 18, surrendered to police at 1 a.m., and three others, whom
he named as his companions, were picked up within two hours.

The 18 year-old and his 17 year-old companion admitted having engaged in a running fight with two men between Seventh and Eighteenth Avenues on East Lake Street early Sunday, March 25th.

It was near there that Officer MCHALE, 36 years old, was found bleeding from the wounds in his legs that led to his death in General Hospital two hours later.He apparently had been knocked through the plate glass window of Nolander’s department store at the corner of Lake Street and Seventeenth Avenue South.

Jagged fragments of glass had severed the main arteries of his legs and he died from loss of blood, despite several transfusions.

Police began the hunt for Officer MCHALE’S assailants on the story of Mason W. Wolke, operator of a service station at 5419 Lyndale Avenue South, who had been MCHALE’S companion that evening.

Wolke said the two of them left the Bee Hive Tavern, 1721 East Lake Street, shortly after 1 a.m. and crossed the street to a parking lot.

As he started to get into his car, Wolke said, he was knocked unconscious by two men.

Officer MCHALE ran around his side of the car and gave chase as the men fled. He caught up with them near Nolander’s and another fight ensued.

During the exchange of blows. Officer MCHALE apparently fell through the window and the men fled.

Exactly how long MCHALE lay bleeding near the scene of the fight is now known. But police got their first call at 1:37 a.m.

It was relayed from Blue and White taxi garage, which said that one of its drivers had radioed in a report of a man “down and bleeding” at that point.

When police and an ambulance arrived, Officer MCHALE was found about 200 feet from the corner, headed back toward Wolke’s car. Wolke’s billfold, still containing $90, was found near him.

The two youths who admitted being in the fight near the corner said they encountered two men in a car on Lake Street.
They said words led to blows and then they left the scene when one of the men went down.

The other man followed, they said, and a new fight started on the corner of Seventeenth. They recalled that a window was smashed and that they got “the other fellow” down; but they couldn’t; remember that their opponent had fallen through the
window.

The Hennepin County grand jury heard the evidence and refused to indict the four teenage youths held in the death of Officer MCHALE. Seventeen witnesses appeared before the jury which, according to County Attorney Michael Dillon, failed to find sufficient evidence of gross or criminal negligence to warrant an indictment.

Officer MCHALE lived at 5836 Bryant Avenue South with his wife and five children, ranging in age from 9 years to 8 months. He had been a member of the police force for 3 years, and was attached to the traffic squad.

He was a veteran of World War II and had attended De La Salle High School and St. John’s College.

Funeral services for Officer MCHALE were held on March 28, 1951 at Annunciation Church, with burial in Fort Snelling National Cemetery.