(PUEBLO, Colo.) — On this day in 1879, Pueblo Police officer Alvin Phippenney was shot and killed in the line of duty—and his story is like something out of an old Western.

On the morning of June 30, 1879, Officer Phippenney entered John Schwer’s Arkansas Hall Saloon on Santa Fe Avenue just after noon. A rancher named John Baxter, and another man, James Moore, were armed and had been drinking. They were causing a disturbance and Officer Phippenney was asked to quiet them down.

The rancher, Baxter, refused to give up his weapon to Officer Phippenney and the two got into a physical altercation. Shots rang out in the saloon and the officer was hit. A gunshot to the back proved fatal, but not before he named his killers.

A jury listened to a dozen witnesses and found that Officer Phippenney was killed by a pistol shot that came either from Moore or Baxter. Incredibly, both suspects escaped. Baxter escaped the sheriff who was guarding him, and Moore’s escape was assisted by a rancher on the day of the shooting. Neither of them was ever found or brought to justice.

Officer Alvin Phippenney was only 32 years old, a widower with 5 children. He was scheduled to be remarried on the very evening of his death. Historian Keith Dameron records that the funeral was held on Tuesday, July 1 at 4 p.m. and the Pueblo Police Chief reported it to be “one of the largest ever seen in the city … there being some 30 vehicles in the procession all well filled.”

The Pueblo Police Department posted Phippenney’s story on their X account on Sunday, June 30 to honor his memory and sacrifice 145 years later.

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