Chief of Police Lawrence P. Bass

Lawrence P. Bass

Chief of Police Lawrence Bass and Undersheriff William Stretcher, of the Boulder County Sheriff's Office, were killed in an automobile crash while responding to a fire.

The Buick they were driving was only two days old and was the department's first police car. As they entered the intersection of 19th and Pearl Streets they collided with the city's first fire truck. Chief Bass and a civilian occupant of the police car were killed in the crash. Undersheriff Stretcher, also an occupant of the vehicle, succumbed to his injuries four days later.

Chief Bass was the first Boulder police chief and was the department's first officer to be killed in the line of duty. He had served with the Boulder Police Department for 21 years.