Family, Friends & Fellow Officers Remember...

Rest in peace Officer Grayson.

Rabbi Lewis S. Davis

May 30, 2019

Time may have passed but you are not forgotten. I believe as long as someone remembers you or speaks your name, you are still with us.
Thank you for your heroism.
GOD Bless

Detention Officer A.Zambito
Texas

June 1, 2015

Bridge Dedicated to Policeman Killed in 1933

(from the Wilkes Journal-Patriot - Friday, March 18, 2011)

by: Charles S. Williams




The West D Street (Business 421) bridge over the Reddies River was dedicated Thursday to the memory of North Wilkesboro Police Officer James R. Grayson who was killed in the line of duty on June 1, 1933. Grayson was shot while pursuing a suspect following a disturbance on 10th Street.

Large signs bearing the officer’s name have been placed on both sides of the bridge by the Department of Transportation.

North Wilkesboro Police Chief Joe Rankin told those present at the ceremony, “We felt that it was only fitting that everyone who crosses that bridge will see his name.”

Sam Halsey, the District 11 representative on the N.C. Department of Transportation Board, said that Grayson “accepted the risks of his job but carried out his assignment.

“This dedication was requested by the Town of North Wilkesboro. It is the hope of the DOT that everyone who travels on that bridge will remember the risks faced by law enforcement officers. I know that his family members who are no longer here would be proud.”

Ten members of the Grayson family attended the ceremony. Halsey presented the family with miniature versions of the signs that have been erected at the bridge.

Mike Pettyjohn, the Division 11 engineer for the DOT, presided over the ceremonies.

A resolution honoring Officer Grayson was passed by the DOT board on July 1, 2010.

Officer Bryant Pierce, the chaplain for the North Wilkesboro Police Department, gave the invocation, and Major Scott Teague led the Pledge of Allegiance.

North Wilkesboro Mayor Robert Johnson welcomed those present, adding, “we have a great department and a great chief, and this dedications allows us to recognize one of our fallen officers.”

Officer Grayson, who was born on Dec. 5, 1910, to J.C. Grayson and Bessie Jenkins Grayson, became a North Wilkesboro officer in 1931. He was killed at the age of 22.

Account of incident

According to an account of the incident from The Journal-Patriot, at approximately 8:55 p.m. on the night of May 31, 1933, Night Officer John Walker (who would later become the chief of police) and Night Officer Grayson were on duty and received a call that two men had brandished a pistol at Beeches Place on 10th Street (present location of Key City Grill). The officers responded, locating only one of the suspects.

Walker followed the suspect down 10th Street toward Main Street, and Grayson went up the alley between 10th and 9th streets behind what was then Dick’s Service Station. He then turned right and went toward Main Street.

When Grayson reached Main Street, he located the suspect in front of the Deposit and Savings Bank (now SunTrust Bank). When Officer Grayson took hold of the suspect’s arm, five shots were fired. Grayson was struck twice, once in the arm and once in the abdomen. The suspect fled on foot through an alley. Grayson walked a few steps toward Walker, who was near the Boone Trail marker at the corner of 10th and Main Street, telling him he had been shot.

Grayson was taken by automobile to the Wilkes Hospital, where he died at 5 the next morning.

The suspect, Glenn Walsh, 24, of the Summit community, was arrested a short time later at C.O. Bumgarner’s store on Boone Trail at the top of Cotton Mill Hill by Deputy Sheriff Silas Reynolds. After a search of the area where the shooting had taken place the murder weapon, a .32 caliber Smith & Wesson pistol was found and taken in as evidence.

Three months after the shooting, Walsh was brought before the Superior Court for trial. Walsh had three attorneys, with one being James E. Holshouser, (whose son, James E Holshouser, Jr., later became governor).

The case was prosecuted by Solicitor John R. Jones, who was assisted by attorney and mayor of North Wilkesboro J.A Rousseau, who later became resident Superior Court judge (and who was the father of retired resident Superior Court Judge J.A. Rousseau Jr.)

A group of 75 men from Avery County was brought to Wilkes County to serve as jurors. The trial began on Tuesday Aug. 8 and concluded on Friday Aug. 11, 1933. After four hours of deliberation the following day, the jury found the defendant guilty of second degree murder and sentenced him to 30 years.

During their June 6, 1933 meeting, the mayor and commissioners of the town of North Wilkesboro passed a resolution extending sympathies to Grayson’s family. A fund-raising drive was held for a plaque that was placed at the grave of Officer Grayson in the northwest corner of the North Wilkesboro City Cemetery on Sixth Street. The marker reads, “In memoriam, James Rayburn Grayson, Police Officer who lost his life in the discharge of his duty, June 1, 1933, placed by appreciative citizens.”

anonymous

July 2, 2012

Your heroism and service is honored today, the 76th anniversary of your death. Your memory lives and you continue to inspire. Thank you for your service. My cherished son Larry Lasater was a fellow police officer who was murdered in the line of duty on April 24, 2005 while serving as a Pittsburg, CA police officer.

Time never diminishes respect. Your memory will always be honored and revered.

Rest In Peace.

Phyllis Loya

Anonymous

June 1, 2009

May you Rest in Peace.

June 1, 2006

MY BROTHER, MAY GOD BLESS YOU AND REST IN PEACE.

CHIEF RONNIE WATFORD-RET.
JEFFERSON POLICE DEPT,S.C.

June 1, 2004