Deputy Sheriff Will George

Will George

Deputy George was killed by a night watchman in Belcher who resented his presence.

Deputy George and two other deputies had arrested a man for possessing a stolen automobile tire. They learned that the car he was driving had been parked at a garage in Belcher. The man they arrested was also posing as the brother of the governor of Louisiana, but the governor had no brothers.

The deputies and the suspect arrived in Belcher shortly before 10 pm on May 21, 1945. They were approached by the night watchman, who was intoxicated, who proceeded to accuse the suspected tire thief of also being a car thief and a hot check artist. All this time the night watchman was holding his pistol in his hand. Deputy George told him to put the pistol back in his pocket. Instead, the night watchman cursed and told them to "get the hell out of Belcher or he would kill them all."

Without warning, the night watchman half raised his pistol and fired at close range, felling Deputy George with a bullet in the stomach. Deputy George, unable to draw his own gun, called to another deputy to "get him."

The other deputy had left his gun on the front seat of the car and, as he ducked to get it, the night watchman ran around to the other side of the car and started firing through the car door at him. The deputy fired four shots, the first striking him in the neck and two others hitting him in the shoulder and a fourth high up in the left side.

The night watchman, 68, recovered from his wounds and was transferred from the hospital to the Caddo Parish Jail two months later and charged with murder. On January 16, 1946, he was adjudged insane and committed to a mental hospital in East Feliciana Parish where he died on October 26, 1950.

Prior to being appointed a deputy in 1926, Deputy George was elected Constable of Oil City and was also City Marshal at Vivian. Sheriff Flournoy said Deputy George was one of the most efficient and capable deputies on his staff.