Officer Glen Marshall was shot and killed while responding to a disturbance all involving a mentally disturbed person.

On August 23, 1916 at shortly after 5:00 pm, Officers Glenn Marshall and Phillip V. Neff responded to a call from a landlord who was being threatened by a delusional tenant. By the time the officers arrived at an upstairs apartment over a plumbing shop at 3842 Prospect, the tenant - Dr. Fred Larkin (43), a dentist and former realtor - had broken through the landlord's door and was attempting to injure him. The officers pursued Larkin through the building with Larkin firing two handguns. The suspect shot Officer Neff first then, after Officer Neff fell to the ground, began shooting at Officer Marshall. Both officers were gravely wounded. The suspect pried Officer Neff's gun from his hand and continued firing. Officer Neff struggled with the suspect and regained control of his revolver, shooting the suspect. Officer Neff reported he then made his way down the steps and called for help. Officer Marshall was taken to South Side Hospital where the next day, he was pronounced dead as the result of multiple gunshot wounds including one through the abdomen. Officer Neff was treated at General Hospital and although dangerously wounded survived. Suspect Larkin, who had sustained a chest wound near his heart, died at the hospital at 8:00 pm.

Suspect Larkin, who was behind in his rent, had become incensed when he returned to his apartment at 5:00 pm to find the locks changed and his belongings piled behind the building. It was reported that he had undergone surgery twenty years prior and subsequently steadily declined mentally. Larkin became paranoid, believed the police chief was going to order him killed and carried two handguns, a blue steel Harrington .38 caliber revolver, a semi-automatic pistol and a long bladed dirk and his wife had moved out two months prior to the shooting. An autopsy on Larkin revealed that he had been high on a combination of morphine, heroin, and cocaine and had a great number of puncture marks resulting from hypodermic use on his left arm at the time of his attempted arrest. A stray bullet from the exchange grazed the forehead of a woman at her sewing machine in an upstairs apartment at 3848 Prospect.

Officer Marshall was assigned to Woodland Avenue Station #9 and served on the department a year. He was survived by his wife. Officer Marshall's Masonic funeral services were held at the Masonic Temple, 9th & Harrison Streets. Interred: Forest Hill Cemetery.

Article by Brent Marchant