KCPD Memorial Lest We Forget
Honoring the Fallen
Officer
Ralph Hinds
Kansas City, MO Police Dept
EOW: Friday, May 17, 1929
Date of incident: May 12, 1929
Age: 32
Tour: 5 years
DOB: October 6, 1896
Cause: Gunfire
Suspect: Sentenced to death

Officer Ralph Hinds was shot and killed while answering a disturbance call.

On May 12, 1929, Officers Ralph Hinds and Delbert E. Bates were answering a disturbance call at 1409 Brooklyn Avenue. As the officers stepped onto the porch of the house, Ferdinand Brockington appeared in the doorway. He was wearing a derby hat, smoking a cigar, and held a suitcase in his left hand, his right hand hidden behind his back. As the officers neared him, he brought out his right hand revealing an automatic pistol. He shot Officer Hinds once in each leg then shot him again in the back as he fell. Brockington then shot Officer Bates in one leg then fled through the back of the house.

Officers and volunteers searched with bloodhounds for Brockington. Later that day, Officer William J. Haines spotted a man who matched Brockington's description wearing a derby hat, and cigar at the corner of 15th and Brooklyn Avenue. Officer Haines did not want to become involved in a gunfight with him, so he enlisted the help of a motorist, who drove him around the corner allowing Officer Haines to approach Brockington from the rear. When Haines seized him, Brockington denied the shootings although he was still carrying the pistol. He was taken back to his house and was identified by his wife and eight children as the shooter. The family also reported that Brockington vowed to "mow down the law as fast as it comes" after learning that one of his daughters called the police to prevent him from beating his wife.

Suspect Brockington was sentenced to death by hanging. His sentence was modified to death in the gas chamber as mandated by the State of Missouri in 1937. He was placed into an insane asylum until he was judged sane at which time his sentence would be carried out. He was never released. He died of natural causes in State Hospital #1 in 1958.

Officer Hinds, 32, died of his wounds May 17, 1929. He had been a member of the Kansas City Police Department for four years. Interred: Eldon, Missouri.

Article by Brent Marchant

Kansas City Police Memorial