Officer Gunned Down in Seattle Scuffle
A patrolman was killed in a midnight shootout while attempting to arrest a suspected bandit, triggering a city-wide manhunt.
It develops that Patrolman Schaneman, who was murdered at midnight last night, was not shot by William Thomas, the bandit who is supposed to have fired on him from ambush, but by the latter's pal who is now at liberty and is being hunted by the police and every detective in the city. Schaneman caught up with Thomas and engaged in a scuffle with him. Thomas got the worst of it when his pal came up, held a gun to Schaneman's head, and fired the fatal shot. Schaneman's murderer may be lynched if caught, as the victim was a most popular member of the police force. This cold-blooded murder has caused a sensation here only overshadowed by the killing of Chief Meredith two years ago and the crimes of Outlaw Tracy last summer.
“Schaneman's murderer may be lynched if caught, as the victim was a most popular member of the police force.”
The mention of 'Outlaw Tracy' refers to the infamous Harry Tracy, whose 1902 prison break and subsequent rampage across Washington State captivated the nation. Seattle's history of police-involved shootings has remained a volatile and recurring civic tension point for over a century.
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