Fugitive is Killed

Unknown Man Endeavors to Escape from Officers and Is Shot Through Body

Dallas Morning News
30 June 1906

FATAL DASH FOR HIS FREEDOM

Runs from Elm Across Main and Commerce Streets, Dying on Jackson – Robbery at Forney

An unknown man who was arrested on Elm street near the corner of Preston street late yesterday afternoon made a break for liberty and was followed by a fusillade of shots fired by policemen. He dropped dead on Jackson street some blocks distant from the point where he made the break.

The residence of Dr. William Garrett at Forney was entered by a burglar Thursday night and a number of articles stolen, including a watch, a watch chain and a pearl-handled knife. Dr. Garrett notified G.W. Lee, Constable at Forney, and yesterday morning Mr. Lee encountered a man whom he attempted to arrest. The man was covered with a pistol by Mr. Lee, but when the latter proceeded to make a search the man grappled with him and succeeded in wrestling from him his pistol. He then disappeared down a side street.

Yesterday afternoon Dr. Garrett and Constable Lee came to Dallas and notified the Sheriff’s department and the city detectives of the occurrence. Soon after Patrolman McDougal and Ivy arrested a man in East Dallas who answered the description of the one wanted. In the meantime the articles stolen, together with the pistol taken from the Forney Constable, had been recovered from the place where they were pawned.

The prisoner was taken into a saloon at the corner of Elm and Preston streets, while one of the patrolmen telephoned for the police wagon. About that time City Detective Alex Pegues, Constable Lee and Dr. Garrett came up. Constable Lee exclaimed, pointing to the man: “That’s the fellow.”

Instantly the prisoner made a break for liberty. Dashing out a rear door he ran down an alley and into Main street, all of the party following him and firing at him. He continued on across Main and Commerce streets and turned down Jackson. After running about half a block on the last named street, he fell and died almost instantly from the effects of a wound made by a bullet which had passed through the body from the back to the front, coming out in the center of the chest.

The officers who were engaged in the pursuit were Patrolment McDougal, Ivy, Murray and Haney and Detective Pegues. It is not known which one of the party shot him, for all of those named fired besides Dr. Garrett and Constable Lee. Last night Sheriff J.J. Ledbetter made an affidavit before Justice W.M. Edwards charging Detective Pegues with murder, and the detective promptly gave bond for $1,000.

“I do not believe Detective Pegues shot the man,” said Mr. Ledbetter, “and the charge is made merely as a matter of form. In this shape the question can be laid before the Grand Jury and speedily settled. There is some doubt about the race to which the man belonged. Some said he was a Mexican, while others were positive he was a negro. We found pawn tickets in the sweat band of his hat and these were issued to Jim Millson. Whether or not that was the name of the fugitive we do not know. The man had evidently served a term in the penitentiary, for his back was scarred from the lashings which are sometimes administered to unruly prisoners at the penitentiary.”