Sergeant Clarence Dietzel, Sr.

Clarence Dietzel, Sr.

Sergeant Clarence Dietzel was shot and fatally wounded, and Captain Daniel Waters was killed in a gunfight with an ex-convict.

The suspect was wanted for shooting at police the previous night when they responded to a local bar where he had caused a disturbance. Sergeant Dietzel and Captain Waters were waiting at the Bancroft Hotel for the suspect and his girlfriend, who had left her son at the hotel. When the pair drove up, they fired at the officers, and a gunfight ensued. Captain Waters died at the scene.

The suspects escaped. Minutes later, when police forced the couple to pull over, they found that the suspect was critically wounded. He died in the hospital a short time later.

Sergeant Dietzel was transported to Saginaw General Hospital, where he succumbed to his wounds two days later.

The suspect was a parolee who had been released a month earlier. It was later discovered that he and his girlfriend had murdered a man in Wayne, Michigan, a month earlier, stolen his vehicle, and had been on a robbery spree throughout the area.

Sergeant Dietzel had served with the Saginaw Police Department for 20 years. He was survived by his wife and two daughters.