City Marshal Aaron Bailey

Aaron Bailey

Marshal Aaron Bailey and Sheriff William Sweet, of the Washington County Sheriff's Department, were shot and killed after arresting a man for stealing a car in Ottumwa.

The officers had spotted the stolen car and stopped it near the city of Washington. They arrested the driver and took him to the county courthouse. When Sheriff Sweet began to search the suspect, the man suddenly produced a .38 caliber revolver and opened fire, striking Marshal Bailey twice and Sheriff Sweet three times.

Another policeman, whom the officers had picked up while en route to the courthouse, exchanged shots with the suspect but did not hit him.

The suspect fled the scene and remained at large for four years. On January 6, 1934, the suspect and several other criminals were shot and killed in Illinois by members of the Chicago Police Department. The man was suspected to be an associate of the Barker-Karpis Gang and responsible for several other murders.

The Barker-Karpis Gang committed violent crimes throughout the American Midwest in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Members and associates of the gang were responsible for the murders of at least ten law enforcement officers.