Seattle Police Officer Fred Ivey is shot and killed by a robbery suspect on May 10, 1928.

  • By David Wilma
  • Posted 5/18/2002
  • HistoryLink.org Essay 3785
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On May 10, 1928, Seattle Police Officer Fred Ivey (1879-1928) is shot and killed by a robbery suspect.

At about 10:00 p.m. on May 10, a man robbed a Bartell Drug Store at 2nd Avenue and Pike Street. Witnesses followed the suspect until he boarded a Wallingford streetcar at 4th Avenue and Pine Street. When the car approached the Times Square area, 5th Avenue and Westlake, they contacted Officer Ivey. Ivey jumped into their car. At Thomas Street, Ivey got out and ran alongside the streetcar shouting at the conductor to open the gate. This alerted the suspect to the chase and he ran to the rear of the car. The suspect fired a gun at Ivey who fired back. Ivey was hit and died.

The suspect ran to the southwest shore of Lake Union. A woman in a houseboat saw a man running and fall into the water. He got out of the water and stole her small boat. The boat was found near the Ford Assembly Plant at Fairview Avenue and Valley Street, but the man was never identified or apprehended.


Sources:

Rae Anna Victor, Century of Honor: Excellence and Valor in Washington State Law Enforcement (Bloomington, IN: 1st Books, 2000), 149-150; Michael D. Brasfield, "An Examination of the Historical and Biographical Material Pertaining to the Violent Deaths Involving Seattle Police Officers (1881-1980)," (Undergraduate thesis, University of Washington Library, 1980), 59.


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