Bio & Incident Details
Age: 41
Tour: Not available
Badge # Not available
Cause: Gunfire
Incident Date: 7/4/1963
Weapon: Officer's handgun
Suspect: Shot and killed
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Deputy Creel and Deputy Allen Finch were shot and killed by a prisoner in Jackson County Hospital. The suspect, under a life sentence for robbing a service station in Marianna, set fire to a mattress in his cell. He and three other prisoners were taken to the hospital for minor burns. Deputy Finch escorted the suspect to the rest room where he gained control of Deputy Finch's weapon and shot and killed him. He then walked to a nearby room and shot Deputy Creel twice in the head as he was guarding the other prisoners. The suspect then shot and killed an innocent bystander.
The suspect walked out of the hospital and forced a couple to drive him away in their car. He released his hostages near Donalsonville, Georgia, but kept their car. Later in the day the suspect was sighted and chased by two Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents near Smithville. They cornered him near a school where he jumped out and grabbed a 14 year old boy. With a gun to the boy's head he forced the agents to surrender their weapons. He then took the boy; the agents weapons; and their car.
The suspect drove a few miles away; stopped at a house and shot through the front door when the home owner refused to open it. He then fled on foot with the boy to a nearby pecan grove as Georgia State Troopers arrived on the scene. In an exchange of gun fire one trooper was slightly wounded. Another trooper, 200 yards away, shot the suspect through the chest with a 30-30 rifle. He fell to his knees still holding his gun, pointed at the boy's head. The boy quickly picked up another gun that the suspect had dropped and shot him several times.
Deputy Creel was survived by his wife and four children.
Related Line of Duty Deaths
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Deputy Sheriff Allen Heldon Finch |
