Deputy Sheriff Levi A. Bowers

Levi A. Bowers

Deputy Sheriff Levi Bowers was shot and killed in Rockford, Iowa, by a man he was attempting to arrest for the attempted murder of a local doctor.

As Deputy Bowers and the local constable entered the suspects home he opened fire with a shotgun, killing him instantly, and blowing off part of his mother's hand as she tried to stop him. The suspect was taken into custody and charged with Deputy Bowers' murder.

The 28-year-old suspect shot and slightly wounded the doctor as he walked out of a grocery store in Rockford. He said he shot the doctor because he gave him medicine for indigestion that burned up his insides. On March 18th, 1916, he was convicted of Deputy Bower's murder and sentenced to life in prison. In 1918 he was transfered to the insane ward at Anamosa Penitentiary and died there on February 1, 1954.

Deputy Bowers is buried in Riverside Cemetery in Rockford.