Officers killed in line of duty to be remembered
They gave their lives in the line of duty, protecting citizens of three Washington County communities, and until recently, their acts of bravery were all but forgotten, even by their own departments.
But Wednesday, Donora police Officers Clarence L. Eaton and Isaac Johnston, McDonald police Constable Hugh J. Coyle and Washington police Officer Richard A. Thomas will have their names placed on the National Law Enforcement Memorial in Judiciary Square in Washington, D.C., during an 8 p.m. candlelight ceremony. Eaton, Johnston and Coyle were killed more than a century ago, while Thomas died in 1922. Their brave acts were mostly discovered through research by Rocky Geppert, who along with his dad, Rick Geppert, are volunteer investigators who tracked down line-of-duty deaths of officers in Allegheny and other counties. With the blessings of current police chiefs in the three departments, the four names were turned in to the memorial committee to be considered for inclusion on the wall.
Their selection to the memorial was announced earlier this year.
Coyle was shot and killed Aug. 6, 1892, while attempting to arrest an escapee who just shot the police chief of Noblestown. The suspect was serving a sentence for murder when he escaped from jail. The Noblestown police chief and an Allegheny County detective found him hiding in an ice barn, and the chief was shot. Later that day, Coyle went to the scene from McDonald. As he entered the barn, he was shot and fatally wounded. The suspect committed suicide. Coyle, who also served as a deputy sheriff, was survived by a wife and daughter.
Eaton was shot and killed Aug. 16, 1902, after breaking up a fight at a dance at a farm known as Heslep’s Grove. Eaton, who was off-duty and at the dance with his wife, told the group to be peaceful. A short time later, the group started fighting again when a brother of someone in the fight came to the scene and shot and killed Eaton. A suspect was arrested and charged in Eaton’s murder.
Johnston died Nov. 10, 1903, a day after he was shot during an ambush while walking his beat. He was approaching Third Street Hollow near Thompson Hollow when he was shot in the abdomen by a person who was in a large group of people standing on the side of the road. The group fled to a nearby home where they were found a short time later by a posse. When members of the posse tried to enter the home, they also were shot at, and two officers were injured. Several people were eventually arrested.
Thomas died May 26, 1922, after he was gunned down while walking his beat near the corner of Forrest and Highland avenues in what is now the Highland-Erie section of Washington. Thomas was shot twice. One bullet struck him in the chin, then traveled down and shattered his spine. The man who shot him was married at one time to the officer’s niece. Thomas left behind a wife and 10 children.
Rocky Geppert said it is not uncommon for these fallen officers to be forgotten.
“Oftentimes, the department’s records have been lost or destroyed,” Geppert said. “And in some cases, like with the Thomas family, it was never talked about.”
McDonald police Chief Mark Dorsey said he was unaware of Coyle’s story until he got an email last August from the constable’s great-great-great-grandnephew, who found a clipping about the murder while cleaning out a relative’s home. He said he also was contacted by Geppert.
Coyle’s death also was featured in the book “Washington County Murder and Mayhem,” written by retired Observer-Reporter editor Park Burroughs.
Coyle’s relative did some research through the Officer Down Memorial Page and discovered his relative’s name was not on the memorial wall, the chief added.
“I am excited to attend the ceremony,” Dorsey said of his plans to head to Washington, D.C., this week.
Donora police Superintendent James Brice said he never heard about the deaths of the two officers there until he was contacted by Geppert.
“There were never any stories told about their deaths that I ever heard of,” Brice said. “It sounds like one of them was shot in what is now Third and Thompson avenues.”
Connie Thomas, great-granddaughter of the Washington officer, has mixed emotions about his name being placed on the wall.
“Someone is being honored that we don’t really know. We know next to nothing about him,” she said. “I wonder why no one ever talked of him.”
Thomas said she is unable to go to the ceremony but said the family will be represented by her aunt and other family members who now live in Maryland.
Several police officers from Washington will be going to Wednesday’s ceremony, said Officer John Hritz, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 95.
“As far as we know, Officer Thomas is the only city officer to be killed in the line of duty,” Hritz said. “We are working on some sort of memorial to put in the lobby at the police station to remember him.”