Sergeant James Joshua Cowart
Des Moines Police Department
Iowa
End of Watch: Monday, December 7, 1931
Cause: Gunfire

Biographical Info
Age: Not available
Tour of Duty: 9 years
Badge Number: 96

Sergeant Cowart was shot and killed by a former deputy sheriff he had arrested five years earlier. Sergeant Cowart was at home when the man knocked on his door. When he answered it the suspect, standing in the yard, fired a single shot through the glass-enclosed porch, striking Sergeant Cowart in the stomach. Arriving officers found the suspect fatally wounded after his shotgun accidentally discharged as he attempted to dismantle it.

Sergeant Cowart had been with the agency for nine years.