Bio & Incident Details
Age: Not available
Tour: Not available
Badge # Not available
Cause: Gunfire
Incident Date: 3/29/1913
Weapon: Shotgun
Suspect: Executed in 1913
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Dispensary Constable Cooler was shot from ambush and fatally wounded while raiding blind tigers on St. Helena Island in Beaufort County.
Constable Cooler and his deputy were walking towards a local gathering spot when a shotgun blast of buckshot struck him in the face. Earlier, Constable Cooler had a confrontation with a local store owner who threatened to kill him. Constable Cooler's brother, a Beaufort County Deputy Sheriff, and a posse of citizens arrested the store owner and four other men. Constable Cooler died the next day.
The store owner and one of the other four men were convicted of first degree murder. In the state's first double execution both men died in the electric chair September 4, 1913.
Constable Cooler is buried at St. Lukes Episcopal Church in Bluffton, South Carolina. His brother's son and grandson became law enforcement officers and now his great grandson is a law enforcement officer in South Carolina.
