Lieutenant Papin was shot and killed after responding with other officers to a distburbance.

Lieutenant Sears was shot and killed after he and two special officers, Peter Megelkamp and George Stowell, responded to a disturbance call at a residence at 1433 Papin Street. When they arrived Lieutenant Sears remained in the patrol car complaining of feeling ill as the two officers went inside the house where they found other officers investigating a disturbance. After hearing shots fired the officers ran out of the house and observed a man, William Lashley, crouching in a yard 75 feet away, near where Lieutenant Sears was seated in a police vehicleat 14th and Papen, and apprehended him. They also located Lieutenant Sears in the vehicle, dead, with six gunshot wounds, two in the left breast, two in the abdomen, one in the right arm and one in the right thigh. The suspect stated he shot Lieutenant Sears when Lieutenant Sears ordered the suspect to stop. A Colt 32-20 revolver was found on the ground near the suspect.

On October 31 1924, suspect Lashley was sentenced to be hanged. On December 12, 1927 Lashleys conviction for first degree murder was overturned by the Missouri Supreme Court for the trial judge's failure to instruct the jury on the alternate charge of second degree murder and remanded to the lower court for a retrial. On April 16, 1928, William Lashley plead guilty to second degree murder of Lieutenant Sears and was sentenced to life in prison.

Lieutenant Sears had been with the agency for 34 years, joining the department in March 18, 1890, promoted to sergeant in 1905 and to lieutenant in 1923. He was survived by his wife, Rose, and son, Charles. Considered the best shot on the police department Lieutenant Sears owned on of the finest gun co0llections in the nation. In 1904 he won the worlds record for revolver shooting with a Smith and Wesson .44 caliber revolver. Interred: Valhalla Cemetery.