Chief of Police Bradley Cribb

Bradley Cribb

Chief 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 a nearby woods. Chief Cribb, shot through the chest, was taken to Bulluck Hospital in Wilmington where he died the next day. A posse capured 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 had 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 March 5, 1923.