Male, age 43, white male, Harry C. Kavanaugh was the chief of police in Anchorage when a call came in about a man terrorizing his neighbors during a drunken rampage on January 2, 1924. Kavanaugh went to serve a warrant with another officer. Inside the suspect's cabin he saw the man holding a shotgun; recognizing the danger, he turned and ran. The suspect stepped outside and fired twice from distance, striking Kavanaugh in the back.
Wounded, the chief held on for roughly sixteen hours before dying in Anchorage on January 3, 1924.
The scene ended as abruptly as it began. The second officer returned fire, shooting and killing the gunman at the site of the cabin; with the suspect dead, there was no arrest to make. Kavanaugh, a male age 43 whose tour as chief had lasted eight months, was later memorialized among Anchorage's fallen officers, his end of watch marked as Thursday, January 3, 1924—a winter day when a simple warrant service turned fatal.
