Detective Sergeant Marshall N. White

Marshall N. White

Detective Sergeant Marshall White was shot and killed by a juvenile who had broken into a home. Neighbors called police after hearing glass breaking and seeing a juvenile enter a house on Quincy Street.

Sergeant White and five other officers responded to the break in. He and three officers entered the house and proceeded down a hallway leading to the bedrooms. As they were halfway down the hallway, the suspect came out of a bedroom armed with a .32-caliber carbine. Sergeant White attempted to talk the suspect into surrendering the rifle. The suspect fired the rifle and struck Sergeant White in the abdomen. The suspect retreated into the bedroom and the two officers were able to take Sergeant White outside where he was transported to a local hospital. Detective Sergeant Marshall White died three days later from his wounds.

The officers remaining on the scene were able to talk the suspect into surrendering. The juvenile suspect was charged as a juvenile with felonious assault, escape from a juvenile facility, larceny, and third-degree burglary prior to Sergeant White’s death. After his death, he was charged with first-degree murder.

To avoid the death penalty the 17-year-old suspect pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison. He escaped from prison four times between 1965 and 1972. Each time he was captured within a few days. He was paroled December 14, 1976. On October 31, 1977, he was shot and critically wounded by a deputy sheriff when he ignored the officer's command to halt as he fled from a Salt Lake City grocery store he had just robbed.

Detective Sergeant Marshall White was an Army Air Corps veteran of World War II and served fifteen years as a law enforcement officer. He is survived by his wife, three sons and four daughters.