In the early hours of a Monday morning, on August 8, 1904, the peace of Susquehanna Road in Abington Township was shattered by the sound of gunfire. Constable Daniel O'Brien, a 26-year-old male who had served the township for two years, was awakened at approximately 1:00 a.m. by noises coming from the chicken coop in his backyard.
Alongside his father, he went to investigate the disturbance.
As they approached the coop, they were met with shotgun blasts from at least one individual inside. The exchange of fire left Constable O'Brien fatally wounded with a strike to the chest, and his father injured. The subjects managed to flee the scene in the ensuing chaos. Investigators at the time believed the incident was not a random theft, but rather a targeted ambush. It was thought that Constable O'Brien was deliberately attacked due to his dedicated enforcement efforts against local thieves, which had likely drawn their ire.
In the days that followed the shooting, two men were taken into custody as suspects in the murder and theft. However, the case against them faltered. Prosecutors determined that they would be unable to secure a conviction, and the charges related to the murder were ultimately dismissed. Despite this, one of the men was later convicted on multiple counts of larceny for similar thefts of chickens in the area and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The murder of Constable Daniel O'Brien, however, remained officially unresolved in terms of a conviction for the act itself.
