Deputy Sheriff Carlton Edmund Smith

Carlton Edmund Smith

Deputy Sheriff Carlton Smith was shot and killed after stopping a vehicle for speeding at the Goodpasture Island Road and Delta Highway interchange. During the stop, two suspects exited the vehicle and shot him seven times. The suspects were parolees who had absconded from supervision.

Two days earlier, the pair robbed a Tigard, Oregon, motel and raped the owner. The next day they robbed a Portland bank. After they killed Deputy Smith, they kidnapped a woman and her 12-year-old son and forced them to drive to Marion Forks where they stole a truck and took four more people hostage. The suspects then drove to Sacramento, California, where they released all six hostages unharmed. The next day they broke into a Sacramento home, kidnapped a couple, and forced them along with their 19-month-old daughter, to drive them to Nevada. They later released them unharmed and surrendered to police.

Both suspects were convicted of first-degree murder and kidnapping and sentenced to two life terms. On May 17th, 1974, one of the suspects escaped from the Oregon Penitentiary. He fled to Washington with a pair of elderly hostages whom he killed near Spokane. Four weeks later he was shot and critically wounded by a police officer near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, after a standoff. He received two life sentences for murdering the elderly couple and a 75-year term for kidnapping. He died in prison on April 27th, 2005. The other suspect died in prison on September 21st, 2004.

Deputy Smith had served with the Lane County Sheriff's Department for only two weeks and had previously served with the Springfield Police Department for two years. He is survived by his wife and six children. One of his sons went on to also serve with the Lane County Sheriff's Department. Another son also became a police officer.