Officer Hibler, a member of the night guard of St. Louis, was shot and killed by a man he had arrested for vagrancy. The suspect, Jack Roberts, grabbed another man's gun and opened fire. The bullet entered Officer Hibler's left side and grazed the stomach; passed through the spleen, and cut through the intestines in several places. He died from his wounds at home the following day.

The physicians that treated Officer Hibler beginning on the late evening of May 25th, and later conducted the autopsy on May 27th, testified that the wound was inevitably fatal. Officer Hibler was first treated in a coffee house at Second and Almond Streets where physicians first saw him was taken to his home.

The Marshal and Chief of Police of St. Louis, James A. Phelps, testified that he had directed Officer Hibler to arrest Jack Roberts. Roberts had been arrested for vagrancy and held in the city calaboose until he agreed to leave the city within 24 hours and was released with the consent of Recorder Dougherty and City Attorney Anderson as was common practice. After a week to ten days passed Marshal Phelps stated he heard that Roberts was still in the city and directed Officer Hibler to arrest him if he was found in the city on the original charge of vagrancy as Roberts was a bad man and a thief.

Marshal Phelps testified that after the shooting he visited Officer Hibler at his home. He stated that Officer Hibler advised him he had made a will and that he would not survive his wound. Marshal Phelps questioned Officer Hibler in the presence of others, including Officer Hibler's wife. He obtained a dying declaration to the circumstances surrounding the shooting. Officer Hibler stated that when he attempted to arrest Jack Roberts in the Marengo Coffee House, Roberts drew a pistol. Officer Hibler disarmed Roberts of the pistol. Roberts then asked Officer Hibler to check his other pocket. Roberts then drew another pistol from his pocket, reached around behind Officer Hibler and fired the pistol, inflicting the wound from which Officer Hibler labored.

Among other state witnesses, John Lambert, testified that he observed Roberts holding a pistol on Officer Hibler and refuse to be arrested. Lambert stated that Roberts was disarmed and when asked by one of his friends, Dick Jones, where his second gun was. Dick Jones placed his hand in his own pocket then placed it in Roberts pocket and told him to check his pocket. Roberts then drew a pistol and shot Officer Hibler, then struck assisting Officer Hahn across the face with his pistol. Lambert stated that he then took Officer Hibler's club and struck Roberts who fell then ran out of the coffee house and only to be apprehended outside.

Both men were convicted of murder and sentenced to death on September 24, 1850. In 1851 the Missouri Supreme Court affirmed their convictions.

Officer Hibler was survived by his wife.