Wilbarger County Sheriff's Department, Texas
End of Watch: Saturday, February 16, 1918
Age: 45
Tour of Duty: Not available
Badge Number: Not available
Cause of Death: Gunfire
Date of Incident: February 15, 1918
Weapon Used: Shotgun
Suspect Info: Sentenced to 99 years
Deputy James Coffee succumbed to a gunshot wound sustained the previous day when he stopped a car he suspected of transporting illegal liquor.
Deputy Coffee and a Fargo, Texas, constable had gone to the Oklahoma side of the Red River at the Webb Crossing to stop and arrest bootleggers reported to be bringing whiskey into Oklahoma from Wichita Falls, Texas. Soon after the officers arrived, a car with curtains drawn stopped to pay the toll. Deputy Coffee drew back the curtain and two men in the car opened fire on the officers. Deputy Coffee was shot in the abdomen with a double-barrel sawed off shotgun and fatally wounded.
The shooter, who was out on bond for the killing of Cleveland County, Oklahoma, Undersheriff Grover Fulkerson, was later captured. He confessed to Deputy Coffee's murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. The other men in the car were arrested. The shooter's sentence was later reduced to 12 years. He was released in 1925, arrested by Oklahoma officers, and sent to Mcallister Prison to serve his four years for the murder of Grover Fulkerson.
Deputy Coffee was survived by his wife and five children.