Deputy Sheriff John Lafayette Meeks

John Lafayette Meeks

Deputy Sheriff John Meeks was shot and killed while attempting to detain a man who had been ruled incompetent and remanded to the custody of state hospital attendants.

The county judge ruled the man incompetent but allowed him to return to his home in the country to put his affairs in order. When the attendants arrived at the courthouse the judge sent word to the man to return so that he could be taken to Eastern State Hospital in Lexington. The man came to the judge's office, told him he would not go, and then attempted to leave. As Deputy Meeks tried to stop him from leaving the office the man produced a handgun and shot him twice.

The man, age 67, fired at the judge before fleeing. He was captured by the county sheriff and county jailer a short time later and sent to the Eastern State Hospital. In 1929 he was transferred to the Central State Hospital in Lakeland where he died on March 11, 1942.

Deputy Meeks had served with the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office for three years.