Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Georgia
End of Watch: Wednesday, March 3, 1948
Age: 38
Tour of Duty: 3 weeks
Badge Number: Not available
Cause of Death: Gunfire
Date of Incident: March 3, 1948
Weapon Used: Gun; Unknown type
Suspect Info: Killed in prison in 1965
Special Agent Garland Fields was shot and killed during an investigation in Swainsboro, Georgia, while making a routine check on a stranger attempting to sell a rifle at a cafe. He was having dinner with his wife and two daughters. When asked why he wanted to sell the gun, the man, 21, ran to a car outside where his brother, 26, and their two girlfriends, both 20, were waiting. As the man got in the car he shot Agent Fields and sped away as Agent Fields fired five shots at them. Agent Fields died on the way to a hospital.
A five state alarm followed the shooting and resulted in the capture of the two suspects and their female companions near Keysville, after four running gun battles with state troopers on Georgia highways. during the chases they wrecked their stolen car and forced a woman to give them her car. The gunman's brother had been shot and seriously wounded.
The gunman, with the help of his brother, had escaped from a Tennessee chain gang ten days earlier. Both were convicted of murder and sentenced to life. The girls got two years each. After a short stay in prison the brother was transferred to the state insane asylum.
On March 25, 1951, the gunman escaped from prison but was quickly captured. On November 27, 1958, he escaped from a Georgia road gang; kidnapped four teenagers and forced them, in their car, to drive him to Birmingham, Alabama. A week later he shot at a Texas Trooper who stopped him in stolen car. As he fled the trooper chased him, returning gun fire until he got away. He abandoned the car neat Carrizo Springs and stole a pick-up truck. He fled on foot after he wrecked the truck in a ditch near the Mexican border. Hours later he was captured by a posse. On October 5, 1965, he was stabbed to death by a fellow inmate.
Agent Fields had been with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for only three weeks. He was survived by his wife and two daughters.