Lafayette A. Smith, a 31-year-old White male Omaha police officer, was shot just after 12:45 a.m. on Thursday, January 14, 1909, after he rushed toward screams near Ninth Street downtown and tried to arrest a man who had just robbed a woman of her necklace. At the northeast corner of Ninth and Dodge, the suspect fired twice, mortally wounding Smith in the abdomen; even as he fell, Smith managed to return fire and strike the gunman before collapsing and dying within minutes in a nearby doorway.
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