Coffee County Sheriff's Office, Georgia
End of Watch: Thursday, September 26, 1963
Age: 52
Tour of Duty: 2 months
Badge Number: Not available
Cause of Death: Gunfire
Date of Incident: September 26, 1963
Weapon Used: Handgun; .25 caliber
Suspect Info: Paroled in 1971
Deputy Sheriff Herman Smith was shot and killed after making a traffic stop on US 441, between Douglas and Broxton, at 10:30 pm.
He had placed the driver of the vehicle and his wife in the back of his patrol car and called for a tow truck. When the tow truck arrived the driver found Deputy Smith slumped over the wheel of his patrol car with four gunshot wounds in his back. The subject had shot him through the cage in the patrol car with a .25 caliber handgun and then broke through the back window with his wife to escape.
The man and his wife were tracked by bloodhounds to their home nearby and apprehended. An investigation revealed Deputy Smith was writing a traffic citation to the man for a minor violation when he was shot. The suspect's wife had a gun in her pocketbook that she gave to her husband. The man admitted that he shot Deputy Smith, but both refused to say why Deputy Smith placed them in the back of his car.
The man, 59, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life. He was paroled on February 11, 1971.
Deputy Smith is survived by his wife and four children. He was a police officer with the Broxton Police Department for 16 years and was chief when he left and went with the Coffee County Sheriff's Office in 1963.