Lieutenant Patrick J. Ryan

Patrick J. Ryan

Lieutenant Patrick Ryan was shot and killed after arresting a man wanted for a hold-up three months earlier.

He and a police captain had approached the suspect and another man, who both began to run when they recognized the officers. Lieutenant Ryan caught the man as he attempted to climb over a fence. After quickly frisking the suspect, Lieutenant Ryan began walking him to a police call box. The suspect suddenly turned and shot him four times, fatally wounding him. Hearing the shots, the captain stopped chasing the other suspect and returned to the scene. Lieutenant Ryan was taken to a local hospital, where he succumbed to his wounds.

The 21-year-old suspect was arrested a few days later and charged with murder. On February 1, 1921, he was executed in the electric chair.

Lieutenant Ryan was a United States Army Spanish American War veteran and had served with the Newark Police Department for 20 years. Lieutenant Ryan was known nationwide as "The Man With the Camera Eye." After he looked at a picture of a criminal one time, he never forgot his name or his face. He knew all the criminals he saw a picture of in Newark and New York. He was survived by his mother.