Roy Willard Jackson, a 39-year-old male, was a patrolman with the Superior Police Department in Superior, Wisconsin, when a seemingly routine effort to take two suspected bicycle thieves into custody turned deadly. On March 22, 1911, Jackson attempted to arrest two suspects believed to have stolen a bicycle. During that encounter, he was shot with a firearm. The surviving memorial accounts do not identify the type or caliber of weapon used.
Jackson survived the initial shooting and was taken to a local hospital, where doctors continued treating his wounds for approximately three weeks. His condition was serious enough that surgery was eventually performed. He died shortly after that operation from the effects of the gunshot wound. March 22, therefore, was the date Jackson was shot rather than the date he died. The City of Superior's official police memorial records his death as April 13, 1911, while the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Memorial and Officer Down Memorial Page list his end of watch as April 14, 1911.
Jackson had served with the Superior Police Department for approximately six years by the time of his death. What began as an attempt to apprehend suspects in a comparatively ordinary property crime ultimately became a fatal line-of-duty shooting, leaving Jackson hospitalized for weeks before he succumbed to his injuries. His name was later placed on the Superior Police Department's memorial honoring officers who died in the line of duty, as well as the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Memorial.
The available online memorial records describe two suspects connected with the bicycle theft but do not provide their names, state which of them fired the fatal shot, or identify a known offender. They also do not document whether either suspect was arrested after the shooting, charged with Jackson's death, brought to trial, or convicted. As a result, the publicly accessible online record preserves the circumstances of Jackson's shooting and death but leaves the identities and ultimate fate of the two suspects unresolved.
