Officer Down Memorial Page

Chief of Police

Otto H. Reed

Bio & Incident Details

Age: Not available

Tour: Not available

Badge # Not available

Cause: Gunfire

Incident Date: 6/17/1933

Weapon: Rifle; Machine gun

Suspect: One executed

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Chief Otto Reed was one of four law enforcement officers killed in an incident referred to as the Kansas City Massacre.

The Kansas City Massacre occurred when the Pretty Boy Floyd gang attempted to free gang member Frank Nash. Nash was being transported from Oklahoma to the U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. Unknown to officer, an informant had relayed all the information regarding the arrival of Nash and his law enforcement escorts to various gangsters throughout the area. As the group of officers and agents entered their cars at Union Station, in Kansas City, the gang opened fire. In the ensuing gun battle Detective Frank Hermanson and Detective William Grooms, of the Kansas City Police Department, Chief of Police Otto Read, of the McAlester Police Department, Oklahoma, and Special Agent Raymond Caffrey, of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, were shot and killed. Frank Nash, the suspect the gang was trying to free, was also shot and killed.

Pretty Boy Floyd was shot and killed the following year during a shootout with officers. A second gang member was arrested and executed for the murders, and the third gang member was found dead from an unrelated murder.

A little over a year later an officer who was present at the scene became emotionally unstable because of the incident and went on a shooting rampage, killing Patrolman Grant Schroder of the Kansas City Missouri Police Department.

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