Chief of Police Robert Casey Jones

Robert Casey Jones

Chief Robert Jones succumbed to a gunshot wound suffered the previous day while attempting to arrest a murder suspect.

Chief Jones and Rural Policeman Mark Page were tracking a suspect who had murdered his wife on the morning of July 10, 1928. Chief Jones was approximately 100 yards in the woods and Officer Page was in the field close by when Chief Jones was ambushed and shot on his right side. Some 100 pellets from the shotgun blasts hit Chief Jones perforating his lung and liver.

After Chief Jones had been shot, the suspect fled across the woods. Officer Page fired, hitting the suspect. Officer Page captured and secured the suspect, then had others take the prisoner to the Rowland jail. The suspect was sentenced to death but was never executed. On September 23, 1928, he died in prison from pellagra.

Officer Page and Mr. Ralph Brake of Rowland transported Chief Jones to a Lumberton hospital and a consulting surgeon was brought in from Fayetteville to help with the case. However, around 4 P.M. on Wednesday July 11, Chief Jones' condition deteriorated and he passed away two hours later.

Chief Jones was survived by his wife and one child.