Officer Terence McFarland was shot and killed when he and other officers responded to a bank robbery.

On October 13, 1920, the suspect, Fred Charles Smith, had entered the Eastern Taylor Trust Company at 4417 Easton. Smith ordered all of the employees in the back except for the cashier. Smith ordered the cashier to pass the money in his cage to a customer. The cashier passed $15,309 to a customer who stuffed the money into a bag for Smith.

Citizens alerted Officers Michael Comer and William Teepe to the robbery. The officers alerted the nearby 10th District Station and officers responded to the trust company. Smith wounded five officers then hid in the darkness in a movie theatre. After thirty shots had been exchanged Smith stood up and raised his guns telling the officers to come and get him. As officers approached Smith fired a shot and struck Officer McFarland in the right breast. He died enroute to the hospital. The other officers rushed Smith after his ammunition was exhausted and found him mortally wounded with a gunshot wound to the head. He died an hour later at the hospital.

Officer McFarland, born in Ireland, joined the department in 1903. Interred: Calvalry Cemetery, St Louis, MO.