August Friedrich Brusius, a 33-year-old German-American male, was a Philadelphia police officer whose death came only months after he joined the department. Born on August 22, 1873, he was one of six children in a family of German immigrants, and his early life had already been touched by violence: when he was still a small child, his father reportedly died from injuries suffered in a barroom brawl. Brusius grew up in Philadelphia, worshiped in a German-speaking church community, later married Maggie Scott, and had a daughter named Rebecca, known as Reba. Before becoming a policeman, he worked as a teamster, then entered the Philadelphia Police Department in 1906.
On the night he was killed, Brusius was on duty in East Kensington, where Frankford Avenue was crowded with theatergoers heading home after the close of evening shows. Near Huntingdon Street and Frankford Avenue, a domestic quarrel had spilled into public view. The man involved was identified in accounts as James Gannon, who was arguing with a woman he claimed was his wife. Witnesses described the woman as intoxicated and causing a scene. Brusius stepped in as a patrolman trying to quiet the disturbance, advising the woman to go into the house and attempting to calm a situation that had already drawn attention from the street.
The confrontation escalated quickly. After first entering the house, Gannon reportedly came back toward the doorway holding a quarrel with the woman. Brusius followed or moved toward him, attempting to get the situation under control. Instead of submitting to the officer’s authority, Gannon allegedly pulled a revolver and fired at close range. The bullet struck Brusius in the collar area and tore into his chest, piercing the pulmonary pipe. Brusius was rushed toward the Episcopal Hospital, but he died before reaching the institution.
The shooting shocked the neighborhood not only because a policeman had been killed, but because the confrontation had begun as the kind of public domestic disturbance officers were often expected to defuse. Gannon tried to flee into the house after the shooting, but the crowd that had gathered outside surrounded the place and prevented him from escaping until additional police arrived. He was taken into custody as the suspect in Brusius’s killing.
Gannon was later prosecuted for the shooting. The available accounts identify him as the man responsible and state that he was convicted of manslaughter rather than murder. He received a sentence of 12 years in prison. Brusius’s fellow officers mourned him publicly, and his burial at Mount Moriah Cemetery became part of the department’s memory of an officer killed while trying to settle a violent street dispute. His grave has continued to be marked in remembrance, including with a blue wreath honoring his service.
