Police Officer Donald W. Sager

Donald W. Sager

Police Officer Donald Sager was shot and killed, and his partner was seriously wounded as they sat in their patrol car writing a report in the 1200 block of Myrtle Avenue.

Three men, members of the radical Black Panthers, walked up behind and on each side of the patrol car and opened fire with automatic handguns. Officer Sager was killed instantly, and his partner was hit four times. Two of the suspects were apprehended near the scene an hour later. The third suspect was apprehended two days later.

In 1972, all three suspects were found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. One died in prison in November 1980. Another was released from prison in May 2010. The third subject was released from prison on March 4th, 2014.

Officer Sager was a United States Army Korean War veteran and had served with the Baltimore Police Department for 12 years. He was survived by his wife and child.

The Black Panther Party was a black nationalist and Marxist revolutionary political and militant organization active in the United States between 1966 and 1982. 

Members and former members of the group were responsible for the murders of over 20 law enforcement officers and the wounding of dozens more across the nation.

Please click here to visit all the law enforcement officers who have died as a result of the Black Panther Party's violent activism.