Chief of Police Bradley Cribb

Bradley Cribb

Chief of Police Bradley Cribb was shot and fatally wounded during an exchange of gunfire with a man he caught in the act of robbing a store.

The suspect, shot and wounded in the leg by Chief Cribb, fled into nearby woods. Chief Cribb, shot through the chest, was taken to Bulluck Hospital in Wilmington, where he died the next day. A posse captured the suspect two days later in Whiteville.

The suspect, the most noted outlaw in Eastern North Carolina since the Civil War, was wanted on a dozen charges in New Hanover County. During his long criminal career, he escaped from the local jail three times and the state prison twice. A week after his capture, he was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. He was executed in the electric chair on March 5, 1923.