Bio & Incident Details
Age: 40
Tour: 4 years
Badge # Not available
Cause: Gunfire
Location: Texas
Incident Date: 10/20/1922
Weapon: Handgun; Flare gun
Suspect: Not available
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Shortly after daybreak on Friday, October 20, 1922, Mounted Officers Charles Gardiner, Charles T. Birchfield and A.R. Green were on duty in the Upper Valley in El Paso County. The federal immigration officers noticed a suspicious wagon being driven along a road by two men. The officers stopped the wagon, and as they advanced the suspects opened fire and fled. Officers Birchfield and Gardiner were wounded in the initial round of fire. The officers returned fire as the suspects fled. Officer Green returned fire with his rifle. Officer Birchfield believed he wounded one suspect in the shoulder. The suspects waded across the river and escaped into Mexico. Several sacks containing 12 bottles of tequila was found in the wagon. Both wounded officers were taken to the hospital. Officer Birchfield was shot in the hip and jaw and Officer Gardiner was shot once with the bullet passing through both lungs. Gardiner died in the hospital on Saturday, October 21, 1922 at 5:00 a.m.
Officer Gardiner was survived by his wife, Mattie Gardiner, and children Charlie Gardiner, Susie Gardiner, Bessie Gardiner, Margaret Gardiner and Mattie Gardiner. He had entered the immigration service four years earlier. He was buried in Concordia Cemetery in El Paso, Texas.
Adolpho Chavez, 25, was found in Rodey, New Mexico, with serious wounds. He had been lying in a corn field near El Paso and was transported to New Mexico by his partner. Chavez refused to disclose to lawmen how he was wounded. It is unknown if Chavez or anyone else was ever charged with the murder of Officer Gardiner.
