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Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott
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Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott
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The Lansing Journal
Friday, 30 August 1895

         A GRAND RAPIDS DETECTIVE MURDERED LAST NIGHT
         
         Assassinated by a Man He Was About to Arrest
           on Suspicion of Having Been Implicated in
           Tuesday Night's Train Robbery.
           
         Grand Rapids, Mich., Aug. 23. - Detective GEORGE W.
       POWERS was shot and fatally wounded at 11 o'clock last
       night while attempting to arrest two men on board the
       north bound Grand Rapids & Indiana train at the Detroit,
       Grand Haven & Milwaukee junction. The men boarded a
       Lake Shore & Michigan Southern train at Dorr station
       last evening, their suspicious actions and resemblance
       to the description of the robbers, attracting the at-
       tention of the brakeman, CHARLES RUPERT. Upon arriving
       at Eagle Mills the men left the train and RUPERT re-
       ported his suspicions to Patrolman GEORGE B. WELLS,
       giving an accurate description of them. 
         Later in the day the watchman at the West Fulton
       street railroad crossing, to whom RUPERT had told his
       story, saw two men, evidently the same ones, walking
       up the track toward Bridge street. On the way they met
       Officer TATROE and inquired the way to the West Bridge
       street depot. Just before 10 o'clock Patrolman DREW 
       met them on Bridge street and they asked what time the
       train left going north. Their appearance in this vicin-
       ity had in the meantime been reported to Chief CARR and
       detectives were detailed to look out for them. It was
       thought that they would endeavor to go still further
       north and Detectives GAST, JAKEWAY, YOUNGS and POWERS
       were dispatched to the junction with instructions to
       watch all outgoing trains. As the Grand Rapids & In-
       diana train, which leaves the Union depot at 10;45
       pulled up, a detective entered each car, POWERS going
       into the smoker.
         Occupying one of the seats were the two men he was
       looking for and he attempted to place them under arrest.
       In an instant one of them had pulled his revolver and
       fired, the bullet striking POWERS in the right cheek,
       passing upward and backward, penetrating the skull,
       and lodging near the top of the head. The wounded man
       staggered and fell and in the attendant excitement
       the assassin and his accomplice rushed for the plat-
       form, leaped from the car and dashed away. POWERS was
       carried into the depot and the ambulance summoned.
       Pursuit of the fleeing men was begun at once. Detec-
       tives SMITH and DARR, with a patrol wagon full of
       blue coats, were hurried to the scene and a system-
       atic was at once instituted. 
         POWERS was taken to Butterworth hospital, where he
       died at 3:25 o'clock this morning.
         It is quite well settled that the men who are re-
       ponsible for Mr. POWERS' fate are members of the
       Fennville train robbing gang. Definite descriptions
       of the desperadoes have been sent to all the sur-
       rounding towns, and every available officer was put
       on duty last night. Recruits were added this morn-
       ing and it seems almost impossible for the murderer
       to escape. It is thought they first made their es-
       cape to the woods northwest of the junction, and
       the woods are made a leading point of search though
       every avenue of escape known to the officers has
       been guarded.
       
       [Transcriber: It should be noted that Detective
        GEORGE W. POWERS was the first police officer
        from Grand Rapids to die in the line of duty.]
       
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