Constable Adolph H. "Dolph" Berning

Adolph H. "Dolph" Berning

Constable Dolph Berning was shot and killed after stopping a stolen car on Highway 80 at the Emigrant Pass near Carlin.

He had been notified that the car had been stolen and waited for the car to drive past him on the highway. He was shot as he approached the driver after stopping the car. The suspect, an escaped juvenile offender from Indiana, shot him once in the chest. Although wounded, Constable Berning was able to struggle with the suspect but was shot a second time in the neck.

The suspect then pulled Constable Berning into the vehicle and drove to a construction zone near Emigrants Pass. The suspect abandoned the vehicle and got into the vehicle of an accomplice who had been following him. Both suspects were apprehended a short time later. Constable Berning was taken to Elko General Hospital, where he succumbed to his wounds.

The suspect, age 17, was convicted of first-degree murder and executed in the gas chamber on September 29, 1944. No person that young has ever been executed in Nevada before or since then.

Constable Berning had served as Constable for 28 years. He was survived by his wife, two daughters, and four grandchildren.