Baxter County Sheriff's Office, Arkansas
End of Watch: Saturday, May 4, 1968
Age: 49
Tour of Duty: 10 years
Badge Number: 1
Cause of Death: Gunfire
Date of Incident: May 4, 1968
Weapon Used: Handgun; .25 caliber
Suspect Info: Sentenced to life
Sheriff Edmonds was shot and killed during an escape from the Baxter County Courthouse Jail. He and a city marshal had gone to the third floor of the courthouse to feed the prisoners breakfast. While Sheriff Edmonds talked to two of the prisoners they suddenly attacked him and one shot him with a .32 caliber handgun that had been smuggled to him by his wife earlier. The shooter escaped but was apprehended three days later in Cotter.
The suspect, 30, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in 1969. He was still in prison on January 1, 1999.
Sheriff Edmonds had been with the agency for ten years and was survived by his wife, daughter and two sons.