Seattle Police Officer Dorian L. Halvorson is fatally shot on September 23, 1976.

HistoryLink.org Essay 3816 : Printer-Friendly Format

On September 23, 1976, Seattle Police Officer Dorian L. Halvorson (1946-1976) is fatally shot by Gary Horton, who then turns his gun on himself.

Horton had shot up a house in Burien and wounded a 12-year-old boy. He then fled to his basement apartment in West Seattle. Witnesses reported that Horton said that he was going to shoot up his girlfriend's house then go home, have a gunfight with police, then kill himself.

Officers from King County and from Seattle arrived and told his girlfriend to leave the apartment. As she was leaving, Officer Halvorson pulled her out of the way and forced his way into the apartment. Horton fired at Halvorson and hit him in the head. Other officers returned fire, hitting Horton. Horton ran to a rear bedroom and turned his .22 caliber pistol on himself. Horton died at the scene and Halvorson died at the hospital.

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, 115.

By David Wilma, May 22, 2002

Travel through time (chronological order):
< Browse to Previous Essay | Browse to Next Essay >

Related Topics: Crime |

Licensing: This essay is licensed under a Creative Commons license that encourages reproduction with attribution. Credit should be given to both HistoryLink.org and to the author, and sources must be included with any reproduction. Click the icon for more info. Please note that this Creative Commons license applies to text only, and not to images. For more information regarding individual photos or images, please contact the source noted in the image credit.