Deadliest Night for St. Louis Politie

De dodelijkste incident in St. Geschiedenis Louis De politie was niet een shootout, natural disaster, or act of terrorism. De dodelijkste incident in St. Geschiedenis Louis politie voorgedaan in de nacht van maandag, September 3, 1900. Electricity was the assailant as a power line with 3300 volt elektriciteit viel op de telefoonlijnen, at Eight Street and Carr Avenue. The telephone lines connected all the policemen’s call boxes in the Downtown area.

Seventy police officers patrolling the Downtown District were potential victims as they made their way to the call boxes for their 7:00 p.m. check-ins. Tegen het einde van de nacht, two police officers lay dead, and electricity seriously burned thirteen other officers. The current also injured officers by throwing the officers from the call boxes or the headquarters call center.

Vóór de tenuitvoerlegging van de twee-weg radio, police officer called in on the call box every hour, so the station knew they were okay. The call box was also the primary way to call for a transport after arresting someone. As the police officers began to make their way to the call boxes, the electric current knocked an operator against the wall in the headquarters call center.

St. Louis Police command personnel sent out messengers to warn the officers about the potential threat, but too many officers did not get the warning in time. Een lijnwerker, die naar het hoofdbureau van politie reageerde, werd ook zwaar geschokt, when he tried to address the problem.

The thirteen injured officers suffered burns to their hands, or the current knocked them unconscious. The current threw a handful of officers from the call box leading to joint injuries. De meest voorkomende brandwonden waren aan de handen van het plaatsen van de toetsen in de telefooncel of zwengelen de telefooncel handvat.

Patrol Officer John F. Killoren inserted his key into the call box at Fifteenth Street and Franklin Avenue and the electric current through Killoren into the street. Killoren wankelde overeind en probeerde de telefooncel weer open voor omstanders hem kon tegenhouden. The current knocked Killoren back into the street again with serious burns to his hands.

Naast de gewonde officieren, who citizens transported to the hospital, two officers lost their lives that night. De huidige gedode jonge officier, Nicholas F. Beckmann, en veteraan officier, John P. Looney.

Beckmann was a twenty-six-year-old police officer and veteran of the Spanish-American War. Beckman fought at the battle of San Juan Hill, which made Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders famous.

Beckman gebruikt de telefooncel op Eighteenth Street tussen Washington en Carr Avenue. Zoals Beckmann opende de telefooncel, hij schreeuwde en viel achterover. Omstanders brachten hem naar de nabijgelegen Protestantse Ziekenhuis, waar hij nooit meer bij bewustzijn. De afdeling had om het nieuws te breken om zijn moeder, een weduwe, die met Beckmann leefde.

James Looney was een 41-jarige man en vader, die sindsdien was geweest van de kracht 1893. The electrical current shocked Looney as he tried to open the call box at Twelfth Street and Morgan Avenue. Citizens carried Looney to the dispensary, but he never regained consciousness. Looney died 15 minutes after the first shock.

City Lighting officials determined the source of the shock to be the power line from the Seckner Contracting Company. Volgens stadsambtenaren, the Seckner Company’s was supposed to bury their wires, but the company received a waiver from the Board of Public Improvements. The officials cut down the responsible lines and told Seckner to bury the lines after repairing them.

In 2006, de St. Louis Police Department bekend dat Michael P. Burke, who was one of the thirteen men shocked that night, died from the shock 15 months later, December 13, 1901. It was one of the rare occasions that three St. Louis officers would lose their lives in the same incident. The department shootouts get more coverage but the deadliest night in St. Geschiedenis Louis Politie was september 3, 1900, when electricity attacked an unsuspecting force doing their duty.

Sources: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 4, 1900, p. 1

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