In the early morning hours of a Friday in Texarkana, Arkansas, Policeman Hence C. Giles was shot and killed. The male officer was attempting to arrest a suspected bootlegger on July 16, 1926, when the encounter turned fatal. During a search for illegal whiskey in a vehicle he had stopped on East Broad Street, the suspect suddenly turned on Giles and opened fire.
Giles was struck by three bullets, with the initial shot hitting him in the head.
After he had fallen, the assailant fired two more shots into his body. The shooter then quickly fled the scene in a vehicle, leaving the officer for dead. Hence C. Giles died from his wounds within minutes, without being able to provide a statement about the attack.
The man responsible for Giles's death was a convicted murderer who had previously escaped from a Texas prison. Following the shooting, the suspect was eventually apprehended and charged with the murder of Policeman Giles in January 1928. However, his time in custody was short-lived, as he managed to escape from the Miller County Jail just two months later. His crime spree continued, and on June 28, 1928, he shot and killed Constable Roy Selman of the Little River County Sheriff's Office, who was attempting to arrest him. The suspect was ultimately captured in Sevier County and faced charges for the murders of both Hence C. Giles and Constable Selman, in addition to a third murder.
