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| Police Officer Ben C. Collins
United States Department of the Interior - Bureau of Indian Affairs
U.S. Government
End of Watch: Wednesday, August 1, 1906 Biographical Info
Age: Not available
Tour of Duty: Not available
Badge Number: Not available Incident Details
Cause of Death: Gunfire
Date of Incident: Wednesday, August 1, 1906
Incident Location: Oklahoma
Weapon Used: Shotgun; 8 gauge
Suspect Info: Hung in 1909 Officer Collins was shot and killed in Oklahoma by a hitman in retribution for the shooting of an armed fugitive. Officer Collins' murder happened in front of his home and witnessed by his wife.
The suspect was arrested in 1909 for another murder and hung by a lynch mob, along with three other men. The mob had broken into the jail to lynch the murderer of Marshal Zeke Putnam, of the Allen, Oklahoma, Police Department. The suspect was a cousin by marriage of the suspect that killed Deputy Sheriff John Turman in 1898.
Two of Officer Collins' nephews were also shot and killed in the line of duty while serving as police officers in Oklahoma. Patrolman Jim Keirsey, of the Seminole Police Department, was shot and killed on November 7, 1929, and Deputy William Keirsey, of the Carter County Sheriff's Department, was shot and killed on December 10, 1930. Related Line of Duty Deaths | |
