Council Bluffs Police Department, Iowa
End of Watch: Wednesday, June 30, 1971
Age: 51
Tour of Duty: 28 years
Badge Number: Not available
Cause of Death: Gunfire
Date of Incident: June 30, 1971
Weapon Used: Gun; Unknown type
Suspect Info: One shot and killed
Lieutenant Claude Moore was shot and killed by one of two men after they robbed the First National Bank of $52,000.
Police arrived at the bank just as the suspects were driving away. As they pursued the vehicle one of the suspects jumped out five blocks away and fled on foot into a residential area. Police continued to pursue the vehicle for over an hour which ended when the vehicle crashed through a fence in downtown Omaha, Nebraska. The suspect fled the scene on foot and escaped.
Lieutenant Moore and another officer were searching the area where the first suspect fled when a citizen told them that she had seen a man with a bag run into a nearby home. It was discovered that the suspect had taken a 74-year-old woman hostage in that home. As Lieutenant Moore entered the home to negotiate, the suspect shot him in the head and wounded the other officer.
The suspect ran from the home just as FBI agents were arriving on the scene. The agents shot the suspect several times as he ran toward the home of a retired dentist. The dentist saw the suspect coming and stepped out onto his porch and shot the suspect in the abdomen with his .22 caliber rifle. The suspect shot the dentist in the shoulder and then crashed through his glass front door where he collapsed.
The suspect, a former inmate at the Colorado State Penitentiary, died at the hospital. He was also wanted in connection with the beating death of a woman.