Officer Wright was shot in the back and succumbed to injuries sustained two days earlier in a gun battle with two robbery suspects near Garfield, Arkansas. Barry County Deputy Sheriff Vandergrif and Officer Wright traveled to Arkansas in pursuit of two suspects in an assault in Missouri. One of the suspects was shot and killed and the other later captured after they mistakenly jumped into a boxcar containing 30 posse members sent to arrest them while they attempted to escape. Officer Wright was shot in the back during the exchange and was taken to a hotel. He died two days later. Constable Dalton, of the Rogers Police Department, Arkansas, was also shot and killed as he and several officers attempted to arrest the suspects at a relative's residence in Rogers, Arkansas.

Suspect, Nin Shepherd escaped from the Bentonville, Arkansas jail in July 1893. Shepherd was again taken into custody in April 1893. He was tried and convicted of manslaughter in the deaths of the officers and sentenced to one year in the penitentiary. He was drowned in the Arkansas River while attempting to escape from the penitentiary in July 1893.