On February 25, 1973, Officer Fred D. Carr (1947-1973) dies from shots fired by fellow officers in a shootout with a man who is angry over losses at gambling. Officer Carr is the first African American officer of the Seattle Police Department to die in the line of duty.
Officer Carr and other officers had responded to a call of a man armed with a .410 gauge shotgun who was angry at losing money in a card game. Carr led other officers down a hallway in search of the man when the man burst out of a closet and fired a shot. The officers returned fire and both Carr and the suspect were fatally wounded. Carr was hit by shots fired by the other officers.
Sources:
Rae Anna Victor, Century of Honor: Excellence in Washington State Law Enforcement (Bloomington, IN: 1st Books, 2000), p. 102; 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), 109.
Licensing: This essay is licensed under a Creative Commons license that
encourages reproduction with attribution. Credit should be given to both
HistoryLink.org and to the author, and sources must be included with any
reproduction. Click the icon for more info. Please note that this
Creative Commons license applies to text only, and not to images. For
more information regarding individual photos or images, please contact
the source noted in the image credit.
Major Support for HistoryLink.org Provided
By:
The State of Washington | Patsy Bullitt Collins
| Paul G. Allen Family Foundation | Museum Of History & Industry
| 4Culture (King County Lodging Tax Revenue) | City of Seattle
| City of Bellevue | City of Tacoma | King County | The Peach
Foundation | Microsoft Corporation, Other Public and Private
Sponsors and Visitors Like You