White/Caucasian male Doris Wayne Barber, age 33, was a Sitka Police Department officer killed on July 28, 1960, while attempting to serve legal papers at a mobile home in Sitka, Alaska. When he knocked at the door, the occupant fired from inside with a rifle, striking the officer in the chest. Accounts describe the service as related to a court order for property to be returned, and note that the fatal shot ended his tour of duty only two months after he had joined the department.
An unarmed, off-duty officer had accompanied him and called for help after the shooting. When the chief arrived with backup, they found that the gunman had taken his own life, leaving no arrest to be made and bringing the encounter to a grim, immediate close.
The official record lists the cause of death as gunfire and the weapon as a rifle. Barber's end of watch is remembered within the department and by law enforcement memorial organizations, which recount that he had previously served as an officer in California and Nevada and that he was a U.S. Army veteran. He left behind his wife, two sons, and two daughters.
Years later, remembrances continue to mark his sacrifice, with local histories and police memorial rolls reiterating that he was shot while serving legal papers and honoring him among Alaska's fallen officers. The circumstances as recorded—an ambush at the doorway, the suspect's on-scene suicide, and the absence of any arrest—remain consistent across these memorial sources.
