Burglars fatally shoot Officers Trent A. Sickles and Theodore E. Stevens on November 26, 1935.

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On November 26, 1935, burglars fatally shoot Seattle Police Officer Trent A. Sickles (1903-1935) and Theodore E. Stevens (1900-1935) outside a tavern on Roosevelt Way.

Officer Sickles and Officer Stevens responded to a report of a burglary in progress at the Elk Tavern located on 8904 Roosevelt Way NE, which was outside the Seattle City Limits. Sickles approached the front door while Stevens circled around back. Sickles was hit in the head and neck by a shot fired from inside, and he died instantly. Stevens was critically wounded as he exchanged gunfire with the suspects. The suspects fled in a car parked a block away. Stevens died the next day.

Power safe cracking tools were found in the tavern, but the tavern had no safe. Investigators believed that the burglars intended to break into neighboring businesses.

Sickles and Stevens are two of nine peace officers killed in the line of duty in the Northwest in the prior five months.

Sources:
Michael D. Brasfield, "An Examination of the Historical and Biographical Material Pertaining to the Violent Deaths Involving Seattle Police Officers (1881-1980)" (Undergraduate thesis, University of Washington Library, 1980), 81.

By Dave Wilma, May 23, 2002

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