Parole Officer David W. Burns

David W. Burns

Parole Officer David Burns succumbed to gunshot wounds sustained the previous day while transporting a prisoner from Texarkana, Texas, to the Kansas State Penitentiary.

The prisoner had been able to conceal a .32 caliber handgun and shot Officer Burns four times as they passed through Alicia, Arkansas. Officer Burns was transported to a hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, where he died the following day.

The prisoner was captured and sent to Newport, Arkansas, where he was convicted of Officer Burn's murder and sentenced to life in February of 1925. On May 25, 1926, he was shot and killed by Arkansas Penitentiary guards when he ran from a cotton field where he was working with other inmates.

Parole Officer Burns was a U.S. Army veteran of the Spanish-American War and had served with the Kansas Department of Corrections for 13 years. He was survived by his wife and six children.

He is buried in Leavenworth National Cemetery, Leavenworth, Kansas.