Chief of Police Ray E. Curwood

Ray E. Curwood

Chief of Police Ray Curwood succumbed to gunshot wounds sustained six days earlier while attempting to disarm a man at the Mountain Inn Hotel on Union Street in Shickshinny.

At 6:30 pm, Chief Curwood went to arrest the subject for making threats toward his family members with a gun the man had just purchased. As soon as he approached the subject, Chief Curwood was shot twice in the abdomen. He was transported to Nanticoke State Hospital, where he succumbed to his wounds.

The 34-year-old suspect was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. On October 16, 1918, he died in the Luzerne County Jail of tuberculosis.

Chief Curwood had served with the Shickshinny Borough Police Department for seven years. He was survived by his wife and two children.