Walter H. Auble, captain of police, was shot and mortally wounded by Carl Sutherland, a suspected burglar, while resisting arrest. Capt. Auble died six hours later in the Receiving Hospital.
From the Los Angeles Herald
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E.H. Walters, the proprietor of a rooming house at 937 Georgia Street, called at police headquarters and reported that there were two men rooming at his place . . . [who] came and went at all hours of the day and night, [with] bulky packages and that in their room was whisky, morphine, tools of all kinds, blackjacks, pistols and masks.
. . . on Tuesday morning so great was his interest in the case that, accompanied by Captain of Detectives Paul Flammer, he [Auble] went to the Georgia Street house and, with the assistance of Mrs. Walters, got into a room adjoining the one occupied by Sutherland and Fred Horning.
Both men were in the room . . . . Through a transom the officers had a good view of them so that their faces were firmly impressed on their memories.
Through the thin wooden door, . . . they heard enough of a casual conversation to convince them that the two men were indeed . . . desperate crooks. . . .
From that conversation they learned that the men . . . within a day or two . . . planned to commit the biggest robbery they had yet attempted in this city.
Finally both Sutherland and Horning . . . departed from the house [and] Captains Auble and Flammer were admitted to their room by Mrs. Walters and they made a thorough search of the place, taking care, however to disturb nothing that would call attention to their visit.
In a closet of the room they found . . . braces and jimmies, chisels and saws, keys of all kinds and electric flash lamps.
. . . in the bottom of a dressing case . . . hidden under a lot of dirty clothes they found two revolvers of large size, two black masks such as are used by highwaymen and a blackjack and slingshot
In the drawer of a table was found . . . a letter . . . signed by Sutherland. . . .
The letter advised Horning to come up at once as he (Sutherland) had picked out “two dandy cribs to crack, in which there would be no trouble whatever, and hundreds of dollars’ worth of loot as a reward.”
The letter stated that the two houses picked out for robbing were those of Gilbert S. Wright, president of the Wright & Callender company, at 3077 Wilshire Blvd., and Fielding J. Stilson . . . of 1044 West Kensington Road. . . .
[The two officers] . . . met yesterday morning . . . at the home of Capt. Auble at 1817 S. Hope St. and from there went to . . . South Georgia Street, only to receive the information that the two men had left . . . . the two officers took an eastbound Ninth Street car to come up town. As the car passed Hope Street, Capt. Auble saw two men whom he recognized as Sutherland and Horning. . . .
Capt. Auble got the motorman of the car to stop in the middle of the block, and the officers advanced toward the two men on the sidewalk. . . . the criminals turned and hurried their walk back toward Grand Avenue.
At the corner of the street, they were overtaken, and stepping up to them, Capt. Auble continued: “We are police officers, and you two boys are under arrest.”
. . . the two men turned and sprang down the street, but the officers were equally alert and in an instant had overtaken and grappled with them.
Horning was seized by Capt. Flammer and thrown headlong into the doorway of the carpet-beating establishment of A.J. Mullen at the corner of Ninth Street and Grand Avenue. . . .
“Surrender, I am an officer,” cried Auble, and Sutherland’s reply was to jerk from his coat pocket with his left hand a long-barreled revolver [which he] fired point blank at the officer. The bullet struck Auble in the neck on the left side and about midway between the jaw and the shoulder.
Auble crumpled in a heap on the ground, but . . . as he fell tried to wrest the weapon from the burglar’s hand . . . Sutherland pulled the trigger a second time, and the bullet plowed its way through the criminal’s right arm. . . .
Sutherland cried: “Let me go, damn you, let me go", and pressed the muzzle of the weapon to Auble’s abdomen and at the same time pulled the trigger.
With the shot, the officer cried, “I am done for!” and fell backward. . . . Sutherland . . . fired again, the bullet striking Auble in the chest . . . .
As Sutherland fired the fourth and final shot at Auble, Flammer had overcome Horning after a terrific struggle . . . .
. . . to one of a crowd of men who had gathered, he cried, “Get that man’s (Auble’s) handcuffs from his pocket and bring them here.”
. . . then, directing the men to hold the prisoner, Flammer ran to Auble’s side and cried, “Are you hurt, Walter?”
“I am shot, Paul, and done for,” replied Auble in a weak voice. “Get him if you can.”
Regard for the man who had served by his side for more than a decade overcame all other impulses . . . and tenderly he raised the wounded man from the ground, at the same time shouting to a man in an automobile, who had just driven up, to bring his machine to the sidewalk. . . .
Horning was bundled into the front of the machine, and, holding Capt. Auble in his arms, Flammer directed that the motor car be rushed with all speed to the city prison. . . .
Auble was carried into the receiving hospital, where Doctors Quint, Garrett, Cook and Clarence Moore attended him. . . .
The hospital was literally besieged with men, eager to lend a helping hand. Officers flew to obey orders. Inside the little operating room, Auble lay on the table waiting for the operation.
To Detective Hawley he said: “I’m going to die, and I want to go game.” . . . After the operation, Capt. Auble rallied finely, and ten minutes later his pulse and respiration were found to be much stronger than when he was brought in.
It was announced that if the shock did not kill him, he would have an excellent chance to recover. A few minutes later, however, it was observed that he was growing weaker and the administration of oxygen was resorted to. . . .
In the meantime, members of Capt. Auble’s family had been notified, and Mrs. Auble, his two daughters and his son, William, were present at the bedside when he passed away.
He was holding his wife’s hand — saying over and over again — “It was my last fight — good bye.”