Police Officer Cal Palmer

Cal Palmer

Officer Cal Palmer was shot and killed after he and his partner responded to a bar on a suspicious person call. The bar owner had been tipped that his bar was going to be robbed and had been keeping watch on non-regular patrons. When the officers arrived they asked a suspicious man to come with them. He requested that he be able to finish his beer first and the officers let him.

As he finished his beer he slammed it on the table and at the same time lifted a gun next to him in the booth and started firing, instantly killing Officer Palmer and wounding the other officer. The suspect fled but was chased by other officers and killed in a shootout.

Unbeknownst to Officer Palmer at the time, the suspect was an escapee from a mental hospital in Minnesota. A member of the Karpis-Barker gang, he had been responsible for the murder of three other law enforcement officers: Marshal John Rose, of the Kirksville, Missouri, Police Department on November 17, 1930, and Officer Ira Evans and Officer Leo Gorski, of the Minneapolis, Minnesota, Police Department on December 16, 1932.

Officer Palmer had served with the agency for two years was also Major County Deputy Sherriff. He was survived by his wife and two sons and is buried in Memorial Park Cemetery, Enid, Oklahoma.