Deputy Sheriff Green Willis

Green Willis

Sheriff's Deputies Willis and John H. Bending responded to a battery call where two suspects were wanted for stabbing another citizen because he refused to buy them whiskey. When the deputies arrived on the scene, they failed to hear warnings from another deputy that both suspects were armed. Both deputies were ambushed before they could get out of their car. Deputy Willis was shot in the neck during an exchange of gunfire. Deputy Willis did not return to work. His health deteriorated until his death. The death certificate verifies the cause of death was a direct result of the gunshot injury to the neck that Deputy Willis received in 1928. Deputy Bending was shot in the head, and killed instantly.

Other officers returned fire killing one suspect and wounding the other. That suspect, 19, was convicted of Deputy Bendings murder and sentenced to life in prison on May 17, 1928.

Deputy Willis had been with the agency for five years and was survived by his wife and child.