Officer Arthur B. Luntsford is fatally shot on 1st Avenue on January 15, 1923.

  • By Dave Wilma
  • Posted 5/17/2002
  • HistoryLink.org Essay 3789
See Additional Media

On January 15, 1923, Seattle Police Officer Arthur B. Luntsford (1880-1923) is fatally shot by an armed robbery suspect on 1st Avenue. The suspect then turns the gun on himself.

Just before midnight on January 15, Officer Luntsford and his partner arrested two men they had reason to believe were about to commit a robbery. As the officers led their prisoners away, suspect Gilman pulled a gun and shot Luntsford in the back. Gilman exchanged shots with Luntsford's partner, then shot himself. Gilman died in the street. Luntsford died on January 20, 1923.

The second suspect was discovered to be an innocent bystander.

 


Sources:

Rae Anna Victor, Century of Honor: Excellence and Valor in Washington State Law Enforcement (Bloomington, IN: 1st Books, 2000), pp. 173-174; 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), 52.


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.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
Major Support for HistoryLink.org Provided By: The State of Washington | Patsy Bullitt Collins | Paul G. Allen Family Foundation | Museum Of History & Industry | 4Culture (King County Lodging Tax Revenue) | City of Seattle | City of Bellevue | City of Tacoma | King County | The Peach Foundation | Microsoft Corporation, Other Public and Private Sponsors and Visitors Like You