Detective Harley Leroy Kinnear

Harley Leroy Kinnear

Detective Harley Kinnear succumbed to a gunshot wound sustained the previous night when he was shot while interrupting the burglary of a boxcar in Cleveland, Ohio.

He encountered three men breaking into a boxcar at E. 68th Street and Colfax Road and ordered them to approach them. As they did so one of the men suddenly drew a .38 caliber revolver and shot him in the spine. He was taken to a local hospital where he died the following night.

All three men were arrested in Little Rock, Arkansas, and extradited back to Cleveland. All three were sentenced to death for a second murder committed in Cleveland and subsequently executed in 1948.

Detective Kinnear was a U.S. Navy veteran of WWII and had served with the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad Police Department for one year. He was survived by his wife and 8-month-old daughter.