United States Department of Justice - United States Marshals Service, U.S. Government
End of Watch: Thursday, April 17, 1890
Age: 23
Tour of Duty: 1 year, 10 months
Badge Number: Not available
Cause of Death: Gunfire
Date of Incident: April 17, 1890
Weapon Used: Rifle; Winchester
Suspect Info: Hanged
Deputy Marshal Charley Henry Vanvalkenburg Fusselman was shot and killed while attempting to apprehend rustlers stealing cattle.
On April 17, 1890, Sergeant Fusselman was in El Paso to attend court. While at the El Paso County Sheriff's Office, a rancher complained that some bandits had stolen a number of his cattle. The deputy sheriff could not leave the office, so Fusselman agreed to accompany him and a 60-year-old former ranger and lawman in chasing the rustlers. They quickly captured one of the rustlers who was a lookout. The three men found the cattle and assumed the rustlers had fled, but they were ambushed. Deputy Marshal Fusselman was killed instantly. The two other men fled and the posse could not find the rustlers.
Ultimately, a well-known rustler along the Mexican border was identified as the man who killed Charles Fusselman. On October 6, 1898 - over eight years after Fusselman’s death - the suspect was convicted and sentenced to hang. He was executed on January 5, 1900.
Charley Fusselman was promoted to Sergeant in the Texas Rangers and given an appointment as a Deputy U. S. Marshal, where he served for almost two years.
He was buried in the Lagarto Cemetery in Live Oak County. The canyon in the Franklin Mountains in El Paso County where Fusselman was killed is now named Fusselman Canyon.