Bio & Incident Details
Age: 29
Tour: 6 years
Badge # Not available
Cause: Gunfire
Incident Date: 12/5/1920
Weapon: Handgun; Revolver
Suspect: Hung by and angry mob
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Officer Lester Dorman, Sergeant Miles Jackson and Sheriff James Petray of the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department were shot and killed as they attempted to arrest four suspects in their home. The suspects had brutally attacked a group of girls in San Francisco and had been tracked to Santa Rosa. The three officers entered the home of the suspects to arrest them. One suspect was sitting on a couch, one was sitting in the corner of the same room and the other two were in the bathroom.
As the officer were placing the first two suspects under arrest the suspect sitting on the couch jumped with a revolver and shot Officer Dorman and Sheriff Petray dead. Sergeant Jackson, who was in another room rushed to the shots, but he too was shot and killed. Before he fell dead, Sergeant Jackson was able to shoot and wound one suspect.
All four suspects were arrested later in the day and brought to the local jail. An angry group of men demanded the killers be turned over to them to be hanged. After a standoff the mob finally prevailed and the suspects were dragged from their cells and hung.
Officer Dorman had been with the agency for six years. He was survived by his parents and is buried in Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemtery, Colma, San Mateo County, California.
Related Line of Duty Deaths
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Detective Sergeant Miles M. Jackson |
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Sheriff James Albert Petray |
