David H. Stiff, 50, male, was a deputy sheriff with the Arkansas County Sheriff’s Office who was shot near England in Lonoke County on September 23, 1895, while attempting to arrest an escapee from the Arkansas County Jail; he succumbed to his wound the following day. Alongside his son-in-law, Deputy Richard Calhoun Harris, Stiff traced the fugitive to a home about three miles from England.
When the deputies ordered the man to surrender, the fugitive opened fire, killing Harris instantly and mortally wounding Stiff, who died on September 24, 1895.
The gunman fled through the wooded area behind the house and contemporary memorial accounts do not record a subsequent arrest or prosecution in the case. Memorial listings reiterate the sequence—ambush at the residence, Harris’s immediate death, and Stiff’s death the next day—without noting any suspect captured or charged afterward. Stiff is memorialized in law-enforcement rolls and on grave records that place his burial at Mulberry Cemetery in England, Lonoke County.
In later remembrances, Stiff is consistently identified as having been killed in the line of duty during the attempt to recapture the jail escapee, with the date of the shooting given as September 23, 1895, and his end of watch recorded as September 24, 1895. No period sources located in these references indicate that an arrest was ever made or that a named suspect faced trial for the killings.
