Deputy Sheriff Charles N. Cunningham

Charles N. Cunningham

Deputy Sheriff Charles Cunningham succumbed to gunshot wounds sustained two days earlier near Jarales, New Mexico, while attempting to arrest a man who had just shot the county sheriff and the Belen city marshal.

The sheriff and marshal had gone to arrest the man after the man assaulted his grandmother. The man initially cooperated with the officers and requested to retrieve a pair of gloves from his room. As he emerged from the room he shot the city marshal in the leg. He then shot the sheriff in the back as he retreated to cover.

Both officers were rescued and taken to Belen for treatment. Deputy Cunningham and several other deputies responded back to the house and went inside after receiving no response from the subject. As they walked across the floor the man fired through a stovepipe hole in the second floor, striking Deputy Cunningham. He then barricaded himself inside as a posse surrounded the house. The posse eventually set fire to the house, forcing the man out. He was shot and killed as he fired at officers while emerging from the home.

Deputy Cunningham was transported to St. Joseph's Hospital in Albuquerque where he died on March 3rd, 1930.