Officer Shaiper was shot and killed while escorting three men to a call box. Officers Shaiper and Richard Joyce witnessed the three men, David Whitley, David O'Connor, and Fred Wagner dragging another man and they arrested the men when the they provided no reasonable explanation for their actions. The officers began escorting the men to a call box at Fifteenth and Lucas. Whitley suddenly turned and shot Officer Shaiper in the chest with a revolver three times then ran south on Seventh firing at Officer Joyce. Whitley was apprehended in an abandoned lot at Thirteenth and Washington following a gun battle in which he was wounded in the shoulder. The investigation showed that the three men robbed a man shortly before their arrest. Whitley was sentenced to 99 years and the sentence was affirmed by the Missouri Supreme Court but released after only eight years when Governor Hyde commuted his sentence.

Both of Officer Shaiper's parents were born in Ireland. He was survived by his wife, Nellie. Interred: Calvary Cemetery, Carlinville, Illinois.