Officer Gerald M. Harmon

Gerald M. Harmon

Officer Gerald Harmon succumbed to a gunshot wound received three months earlier after apprehending two bootlegging suspects on May 2nd, 1919.

He took the men into custody and walked them to a call box on Brook Road near the Seaboard Air Line Railroad crossing. As they waited for the patrol wagon to arrive one of the suspects produced a handgun and shot Officer Harmon in the chest. He succumbed to his wound three months later.

Three suspects were later arrested by members of the Richmond Police Department and Virginia Department of Prohibition. The subjects had hidden 24 cases of whiskey in the woods near the railroad tracks. The suspect who shot Officer Harmon was convicted of attempted murder before he died. He was sentenced to 7 years.

Officer Harmon had only served with the Richmond Police Department for approximately three months at the time of the shooting. He was survived by his wife and daughter.