On April 23, 1985, Seattle Police Officer Dale E. Eggers is murdered by a bank robber.
Officer Eggers worked part time as a guard at the SeaFirst Bank at 2555 Beacon Avenue S. At approximately noon, Ray Albert Lewis, a Navy veteran and parolee, used a note to demand money from a teller. Officer Eggers was seated at a desk talking on a telephone and may not have been aware that a robbery was in progress. Lewis walked past the officer and pulled a sawed off .410 gauge shotgun from a briefcase and shot Eggers in the head.
In 1986, Lewis was convicted of aggravated first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
In March 1972, Officer Eggers had been one of five officers wounded by a sniper at the Bush Hotel at 621 S Jackson Street.
Sources:
Rae Anna Victor, Century of Honor: Excellence and Valor in Washington State Law Enforcement (Bloomington, IN: 1st Books, 2000), 124; "Seattle Policeman Shot To Death," The Seattle Times, , April 23, 1985, p. A-1; "Killer Of Off-Duty Officer Handed Life Prison Term," Ibid., February 27, 1986, p. B-8.
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