Special Officer John MacLeod

John MacLeod

Special Officer John MacLeod and Sheriff Robert Gilmore, of the Big Horn County Sheriff's Department, were shot and killed when they went to arrest a transient. The man was the suspect in several burglaries in the county and wanted for disturbing the peace on the reservation.

The officers told him the charges would be dropped if he left town. The officers went to his shack to arrest him after he failed to leave town. They were confronted by the man with a .22 caliber rifle and the man opened fire, fatally wounding Sheriff Gilmore in the neck. The suspect then wounded the Undersheriff before barricading himself in his shack.

As Officer MacLeod attempted to kick in the back door he was shot in the groin. The round struck an artery and Officer MacLeod bled to death. Deputies from Yellowstone County responded to the scene and set the house on fire. As the man fled he was shot and killed by the crowd.

Officer MacLeod had been with the agency for two years and was survived by his wife, Lillie, a son John, and daughter, Jessie.