Corporal Walter A. Wood, 44 years old, left the Central Police Station on Easter morning, April 4, 1926 to meet with two patrolmen at the call box in front of the Rush Inn Cafe on South 8th Street. At 4:30 a.m., shots rang out and Corporal Wood lay fatally wounded on the sidewalk in front of the Beno Pool Hall on the northwest corner of 8th and Edmond streets.

Mystery still surrounds this incident, but it is believed that Corporal Wood came upon a burglary in progress. Two men hiding in the stairway that led to the second floor pool hall shot him as he passed by the doorway. The two patrolmen he was to have met, Officers Swope and Kennedy, heard the shots and ran out of the Rush Inn Cafe, almost falling over the stricken officer. Both halted for a moment to inquire, "What's the matter Walt?" and received no answer. The patrolmen stopped to render assistance and this probably allowed the murderers to escape.

Officer Kennedy ran to a telephone and called an ambulance and other officers from the Central Police Station. Officer Swope resumed the chase but lost all trace of the two murderers as they ran into an alley. Officer Swope might have had a chance to shoot had a taxicab not driven into his path. The two men who killed Corporal Wood had been stealing cigarettes and cigars at the pool hall and several boxes of these were found in the doorway after the shooting.

Corporal Wood had been shot four times with a .45 caliber pistol and died prior to arriving at the hospital. The department posted a $500.00 reward for the arrest of the killers and conducted a lengthy search. This murder has never been solved. Corporal Wood was survived by a wife and two children.