On June 11, 1907, Patrolman James J. Francisco, a 45-year-old White/Caucasian male with the Bluefield Police Department in West Virginia, became involved in a confrontation that had begun with an arrest earlier that evening. The police chief had taken a woman into custody for being drunk in public and disturbing the peace. After her husband learned that she had been arrested, he went to the city jail and began arguing with the jailer.
The disturbance became serious enough that the jailer sent for police officers, bringing Francisco and a fellow officer into what would become a fatal encounter.
Francisco and the other officer located the woman's husband in the courthouse yard, where the disturbance continued. As Francisco reached toward the suspect in an apparent effort to take hold of him, the suspect suddenly opened fire with a handgun. One of the first shots wounded Francisco's fellow officer, and another struck Francisco in the chest. Although mortally wounded, Francisco was still able to draw his own weapon and return fire, severely wounding the gunman. The suspect then fled, but the wounded fellow officer pursued him on foot and took him into custody after a short chase. Francisco died as a result of the gunshot wound that day, making June 11, 1907, his recorded end of watch.
The available online memorial account does not identify the shooter by name, but it documents that the arrest led to a prosecution and a manslaughter conviction. The convicted shooter was sentenced to five years in prison. The available record does not specify the exact date of the trial, describe the evidence presented in court, or identify a different original charge before the manslaughter conviction. It likewise describes only one gunman and provides no indication that an accomplice or additional suspect participated in Francisco's shooting.
The convicted shooter remained imprisoned until December 1912, when he was released. His life ended only a few months later. In March 1913, he jumped from the boxcar of a fast-moving freight train, fell backward beneath the wheels, and was killed. Thus, the known online account of Francisco's death traces the case from the initial arrest of the shooter's wife and the disturbance at the Bluefield city jail, through the courthouse-yard gunfight and immediate apprehension, to the shooter's manslaughter conviction, prison sentence, eventual release, and death in the railroad accident the following year.
