In the winter of 1914, a young police officer's life was tragically cut short in Dothan, Alabama. Officer Hugh H. DeShazo, a 28-year-old male who had been with the Dothan Police Department for a mere month, was walking his beat on December 7th. He made a stop at a local grocery store to use the telephone, a routine act that would soon turn fatal.
While inside the store, a man entered and, without warning, shot Officer DeShazo four times.
The young officer, who was survived by his wife and three children, succumbed to his injuries. The sudden and violent nature of the act sent shockwaves through the community and left a void in a family that was just beginning.
A 45-year-old suspect was apprehended in connection with the murder. During the subsequent legal proceedings, the suspect pleaded insanity. Despite this plea, he was convicted of first-degree murder and received a life sentence for the killing of Officer DeShazo. In a turn of events that would likely be viewed differently today, the convicted man was paroled on March 21, 1923, less than nine years after the murder.
