Deputy Walter Clifford Brown

Walter Clifford Brown

Deputy Brown and Night Marshal Thomas Stephens were shot and killed after responding to a report that several men were creating a disturbance in front of a church they were using for a lodge meeting.

When Deputy Brown and Marshal Stephens attempted to place a man under arrest, his father drove up and opened fire killing both officers. Both officers managed to return fire killing four trouble makers, three who were their killer's sons. Vigilantes arrived on the scene and burned the church to the ground. They threw two rioters into the fire killing both. The shooting deaths of these two officers sparked riots in the town that resulted in several other people being killed and several buildings and homes burned in Millin. Another son of the killer was lynched. The incident became know as one of the "Red Summer Riots", one of 25 that occurred in the U.S. During 1919. They occurred also in Washington, D.C., Knoxville, Tennessee, Longview, Texas, Phillips County, Arkansas, Omaha, Nebraska, and most dramatically Chicago.

The gunman was arrested for the murder of both officers. He was convicted of Deputy Brown's murder and sentenced to death. He was awarded a new trial and acquitted. A third trial resulted in an acquittal for the murder of Marshal Stephens. He was released from jail on May 30, 1923.

Deputy Brown had served with the agency for 8 years. He was survived by his wife and five children.