Officer Benjamin Paul Carden

Benjamin Paul Carden

Officer Benjamin Carden was shot and killed while attempting to serve an arrest warrant on a suspect at 5:00 p.m. near Seabrook.

Officer Carden was shot at close range in the abdomen with a shotgun. His partner, who was around the back of the house, ran to the front and engaged in a gunfight with two fleeing suspects. The suspects, who were brothers, continued to fire at him even as he loaded Officer Carden's body into the car and then disappeared into the woods.

One of the suspects was captured in Philadelphia in 1932. He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. He died from an unknown disease in prison before the sentence could be carried out. The other suspect was captured in Cincinnati in 1939. He was tried in 1940, sentenced to death, and executed in the electric chair on August 20, 1941.

Officer Carden was a United States Navy veteran and had served with the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office for six months. He was survived by his wife, child, parents, three brothers, and two sisters.