Flint Police Department, Michigan
End of Watch: Sunday, January 5, 1969
Age: 42
Tour of Duty: 18 years
Badge Number: 7
Cause of Death: Gunfire
Date of Incident: January 4, 1969
Weapon Used: Rifle; M-1
Suspect Info: Sentenced to life
Detective Alton Fritcher was shot and killed while responding to an armed robbery.
He and another officer were visiting a business on Davison Road when a customer of a nearby cocktail lounge ran in and told them the place was being robbed. Detective Fritcher went to the front door, and his partner went to the back door of the lounge. When the two officers entered the lounge, the suspects, two men and a woman, opened fire, striking Detective Fritcher in the back and wounding his partner in the hand. Detective Fritcher was transported to Hurley Hospital, where he died the following day.
All three suspects were captured a short time later. Before one of the male suspects, a Southern Michigan Prison escapee, 32, was captured, he ran to a nearby house and tried to break in. He shot and killed the owner of the house in front of his wife and three children. He was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on September 12, 1969. He died in prison on November 20, 2020.
The female suspect, 28, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison on September 11, 1969. She died in prison on October 16, 2001. The other male suspect, 30, was also sentenced to life.
Detective Fritcher was a United States Army World War II veteran and had served with the Flint Police Department for 18 years. He was survived by his wife, three sons, and two stepdaughters.