Sergeant Joe Allen Gamble
Oklahoma Department of Corrections
Oklahoma

End of Watch: Tuesday, June 6, 2000
Cause: Stabbed

Biographical Info
Age: 28
Tour of Duty: 3 years
Badge Number: Not available

Sergeant Gamble was killed after being stabbed by an inmate at the Oklahoma State Reformatory, low maximum-security prison.

As officers began locking down the prison for a head count, the suspect began to attack another officer in a common area of the prison, stabbing him 16 times in the back of the head and back. When Sergeant Gamble went to assist the other officer, the inmate stabbed him in the throat with one of two homemade knives he had. The suspect was taken under control after a brief standoff with the prison's emergency response team.

Both officers were transported to a local hospital where Sergeant Gamble died the next morning. He had been with the Oklahoma Department of Corrections for three years.

 
Photograph: Sergeant Joe Allen Gamble

Patch image: Oklahoma Department of Corrections, Oklahoma

Visit Sergeant Gamble's memorial at www.ODMP.org