Austin American-Statesman
AUSTIN — An Austin police chief killed in one of the city’s earliest mass shootings 88 years ago will be honored Friday with a marker in South Austin on Friday.
The Austin Police Officer Memorial Project will install its 19th marker for Chief James Littlepage at 1 p.m. at Trinity Abundant Life Church, 412 Cumberland Road, between South First Street and South Congress Avenue.
According to Austin police, Chief Littlepage and several officers set out from City Hall on Oct. 9, 1928, in response to reports that a man wielding a shotgun had killed two women near the 300 block of Elizabeth Street.
The group split off, with officers chasing the man along a creek bed and Littlepage trying to head him off in his car.
The chief confronted the man in the 2500 block of Wilson Street and tried to talk him into surrendering. But the man shot Littlepage twice in the abdomen before running to a house at 1800 Newton St. There, he shot and killed a carpenter working outside the home, police said.
The gunman barricaded himself inside another house and killed himself as police closed in.
The Austin Police Officer Memorial Project was created by Cpl. Jason Huskins in April 2008 to commemorate where an officer was killed in the line of duty. The gray granite markers donated by Rockdale Memorials are 5-feet-4 inches tall, 20 inches wide and 6 inches thick.
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