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R. G. Warnke
Type of Officer: US Corrections Officer
Jurisdiction: Leavenworth Penitentiary
County: Leavenworth
Death Date: 6/20/1929
Added to Memorial: 2006
Circumstances of Death:
Foreman R. G. Warnke was fatally beaten by inmate Carl Panzram in the laundry room of the United States Penitentiary at Leavenworth on June 20, 1929. foreman Warnke was performing his early morning duties when inmate Panzram attacked him from behind, knock him to the ground. After falling, the inmate jumped on Foreman Warnke and continued to beat him. The inmate, who had claimed to have murdered 22 people, was hanged at Leavenworth Prison. Foreman Warnke was 47 years old at the time of his death and had served at the Penitentiary for eight years. He was survived by his wife and son.
 

William E. Waers
Type of Officer: Rock Island Railway Police
Jurisdiction: Herington
County: Dickinson
Death Date: 1/11/1922
Added to Memorial: 1987
Circumstances of Death:
Rock Island Railway policeman Waers was brought to Herington to assist in an ongoing investigation concerning nine murders in the railroad yards over the past five years. Waers, it was later learned, evidently interrupted two men stealing coal from the yards and was shot when he attempted to arrest them. Waers and other railroad police had been cooperating with local authorities at the time of his death. After his killing, additional railroad police were brought into the case and Waers' two killers were identified.

Wesley G Walden
Type of Officer: Deputy Sheriff
Jurisdiction: Wyandotte County
County: Wyandotte
Death Date: 11/19/1955
Added to Memorial: 1987
Circumstances of Death:
Walden, only nineteen days on the force, was riding with another officer at approximately 4 a.m. when they responded to an accident call. While en route, their patrol vehicle struck the rear of a truck parked along the roadside near Muncie. The driver of the truck had stopped to aid another motorist and the rear of his truck was left protruding onto the roadway. Walden was killed in the accident, and the other officer was severely wounded.

J. B. Waldrupe
Type of Officer: Corrections Officer
Jurisdiction: Leavenworth
County: Leavenworth
Death Date: 11/16/1901
Added to Memorial: 1997
Circumstances of Death:
Three hundred and thirty eight prisoners were working at the new site for the federal prison just north of Leavenworth and two miles west of Fort Leavenworth and the federal prison. They were under the control of twenty seven guards. At approximately 3:30 P. M. a whistle sounded from a small steam engine inside the stockade. Thee inmates instantly dropped their tools and drew three Colts revolvers and marched up the superintendent's office. Superintendent Hinds and two guards were walked out of the building in font of the convicts. As they advanced additional guards were added to the human shield (no weapons were allowed within the stockade). The convicts charged one gun tower where all of the weapons were held and removed them and took the guard hostage. After being turned away from the west gate the convicts turned to the southwest corner of the stockade. One tower was rushed but the guards rifle did not fire. He was slightly wounded but they left him alone when he threw the rifle down. By this time the three hundred and fifty convicts who refused to joint the "Mutiny" were shouting and cheering while guards fired from twelve different towers. About one hundred yards east of the first tower was that of J. B. Waldrupe. The convicts started to fire but he was unable to return fire because of the captive guards. His tower was constructed of wood and offered little protection. He fell wounded in the hip. The tower was rushed and he rose to fire. Waldrupe killed one of the attackers. Almost instantly Waldrupe was struck in the head with a bullet. When the tower was rushed he was able to knock the first attacker down the ladder. The second attacker closed the trap door and protected the mortally wounded officer from his fellows. The captives were released about a quarter of a mile from the prison. The twenty six escapees spread out throughout the state and people from all walks of life went on the hunt. Many depredations were committed by the escapees, some of them were killed, but the majority were eventually captured. Waldrupe lingered nine days before he died.

Paul J. Weber
Type of Officer: Parole Officer
Jurisdiction: Kansas City
County: Wyandotte
Death Date: 10/19/1976
Added to Memorial: 1987
Circumstances of Death:
Parole Officer Weber went to the home of a parolee at the mother's request to have her son move out. As Weber followed the parolee into the kitchen, the man seized a butcher knife and stabbed Officer Weber to death. The parolee was convicted of assault on a law enforcement officer and first degree murder.

Daniel Weiser
Type of Officer: Police Officer
Jurisdiction: Valley Falls
County: Jefferson
Death Date: 1/6/1883
Added to Memorial: 1987
Circumstances of Death:
The night prior to Weiser's death, Charles Cobb and another man had argued after a lyceum presentation, Cobb finally shooting at the other man. The assaulted man filed a charge and Officer Weiser went to the home of Charles Cobb to serve the warrant.Cobb was waiting and, as Weiser approached, Cobb shot and killed the officer. Cobb then made his escape and the Jefferson County sheriff issued a telegraphic bulletin. Near Udall a rancher became suspicious of one of his new workers and informed Cowley County sheriff A. T. Shenneman who investigated, recognized Cobb from the bulletin, and attempted to arrest him, but was shot and killed in the process. Cobb was captured and later lynched in Winfield. See entry under Shenneman.

A. O. Welfelt
Type of Officer: Sheriff
Jurisdiction: Cowley County
County: Cowley
Death Date: 1/28/1907
Added to Memorial: 1987
Circumstances of Death:
Sheriff Welfelt had tracked murderer Louis Bloomfield to Ponca City, Oklahoma Territory. On November 22, 1906, as Welfelt approached Bloomfield, he drew his revolver and accidentally discharged the weapon into his own leg. After the accident,Welfelt continued to work diligently, even arresting a suspect in the murder of Arkansas City constable John Breene. He continued to overwork and at one point his deputies locked him in a cell to restrain him. Welfelt finally succumbed to the wound,which was complicated by other illnesses, on January 28, 1907, nearly three months after he had been shot. The wound had caused his retirement as sheriff prior to the elections and he was no longer an officer at the time of his death.

Isaac West
Type of Officer: Night Marshal
Jurisdiction: Gas City
County: Allen
Death Date: 12/15/1921
Added to Memorial: 1995
Circumstances of Death:
Marshall West was shot and killed in Gas City as he approached a local home owner in an attempt to serve an order given by the city council. The property owner had repeatedly refused to remove a section of barbed wire which he had strung across his sidewalk. West was shot without warning as he approached the house.

Fred Wheeler
Type of Officer: Police Officer
Jurisdiction: Kansas City
County: Wyandotte
Death Date: 9/1/1922
Added to Memorial: 1987
Circumstances of Death:
Officer Wheeler and Sergeant Elmer Biggs observed several persons unloading tires from a parked truck. When the officers approached to investigate, the suspects opened fire, killing Biggs instantly and seriously wounding Wheeler. Wheeler later died at the hospital.

James R. White
Type of Officer: Police Officer
Jurisdiction: Junction City
County: Geary
Death Date: 11/18/1901
Added to Memorial: 1987
Circumstances of Death:
Officers White and Robert Cooper were attempting to quell as disturbance created by Fourteenth Cavalry soldiers from nearby Fort Riley. The disturbance became violent and both officers were shot and killed by cavalry trooper W. B. Buchanan. The suspect later committed suicide in his cell.

Lee White
Type of Officer: Corrections Officer
Jurisdiction: Hutchinson
County: Reno
Death Date: 7/26/1928
Added to Memorial: 1997
Circumstances of Death:
Lee White a guard with the Hutchinson State Reformatory was in charge of a work detail on July 25, 1928 at the State Fairgrounds. The five inmates were involved with smoothing out the finishing coat of cement work on the new grandstands. They finished about 11:00 and began picking up tools. Just as White turned out a searchlight he was struck on the head by two of the inmates, Glenn Bellfield and Jake Schell, and knocked unconscious. The two escaped, changed clothes, shot a young girl in the cheek while commandeering her car, and left town. White regained consciousness and was treated by a local physician. After receiving the first aid White returned to the reformatory. Even though advised against it he was determined to join in the chase. Later that morning he took his brother's Lincoln Touring car, an inmate driver, and two other reformatory officers. The automobile was traveling at a high rate of speed when it approached a curve in the road. The driver realized that he would be unable to make the turn and determined to go straight. The car hit a stump and rolled two times. As it came to rest White was underneath it. He died at the scene while the others suffered minor injuries. After a cross country manhunt the two
assailants were captured after a shootout in Roswell, New Mexico on July 29, 1928.

Chauncey B. Whitney
Type of Officer: Sheriff
Jurisdiction: Ellsworth County
County: Ellsworth
Death Date: 8/15/1873
Added to Memorial: 1987
Circumstances of Death:
Whitney, well-known lawman and scout who had participated in the Battle of Beecher Island in 1868, became sheriff of Ellsworth County in 1871. Billy Thompson, buffalo hunter and general frontiersman, tried to start a fight over a card game. Whitney stepped in to stop the disturbance and Thompson shot him with a double-barreled shotgun. Thompson was quoted assaying, (when asked why he would shoot someone like Whitney), "I would have shot if it had been Jesus Christ."

Todd Michael Widman
Type of Officer: Deputy Sheriff
Jurisdiction: Brown County
County: Brown
Death Date: 3/1/2000
Added to Memorial: 2000
Circumstances of Death:
During the early evening of March 1, 2000, Brown County Deputy Sheriff Todd Widman responded to a report of a transient walking along U.S. highway 73 northeast of Hiawatha. Not finding anyone at that location, he continued patrolling the Hiawatha area. An hour later, he located an individual matching the earlier description walking east on Oregon Street in Hiawatha. Believing the young man to be a runaway juvenile, Deputy Widman placed the youth in the front seat of his canine cruiser. While en route to the Sheriff’s Department, the sixteen-year-old juvenile removed a handgun from his duffel bag and shot Deputy Widman multiple times. Deputy Widman managed to get out of the patrol car and radio a distress call before collapsing in a resident’s driveway near 12th and Oregon St. Emergency medical personnel took Deputy Widman to Hiawatha Community Hospital where he died of his wounds a short time later. Nearly three hours after the shooting, following a manhunt by several police agencies, the suspect was shot and killed after firing upon officers just west of Hiawatha. Deputy Widman, a lifelong Brown County resident, was twenty-one years old and a junior at Washburn University seeking a degree in criminal justice. He had worked for the Brown County Sheriff’s Department for nearly two years as a reserve officer and part-time deputy. He is survived by his mother and stepfather Brenda and Dean Wenger and his sister Jill Widman.

Ben Wiggins
Type of Officer: Night Marshal
Jurisdiction: Lyons
County: Rice
Death Date: 3/30/1936
Added to Memorial: 1988
Circumstances of Death:
Officer Wiggins was found dead on the morning of March 30 at the rear of the Williamson Brooks furniture store. It was apparent that he had surprised burglars in the store and was shot before he could act in defense.

Christopher C. Willems
Type of Officer: Deputy Sheriff
Jurisdiction: Wichita
County: Sedgwick
Death Date: 5/12/1991
Added to Memorial: 1992
Circumstances of Death:
Officer Willems was returning to police headquarters at the end of his shift at 11:00 P.M. when he stopped a van to question the three occupants. One of the occupants, Garland Deavers, had an outstanding pick up warrant out on him. He had no identification and gave the officer his brother's name. Willems was suspicious and obtained a waiver to search the van. The officer asked the occupants to step to the front of the van. He located a film canister of Marijuana and notified Garland Deavers that he was under arrest. Garland struck the officer and a fight ensued. A second occupant, Fred Wayne Deaver, took advantage of the confusion to grab a .357 revolver from the van and shoot the patrolman in the upper right thigh. As the officer lay on the ground Fred Deaver shot him through the head. The third occupant ran from the scene prior to the shooting and was not charged. The two Deaver's were convicted and sentenced to prison.

Mike Williams
Type of Officer: Policeman/Special Deputy
Jurisdiction: Abilene
County: Dickinson
Death Date: 10/5/1871
Added to Memorial: 1987
Circumstances of Death:
City Marshal James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok became involved with a group of men when he attempted to quell their disturbance on the Abilene streets. Hickok warned the group and left. Later, when Phil Coe fired his revolver, Hickok thought the men,numbering about fifty, would likely cause a fight or a major disturbance. Hickok confronted Coe, both men drew their revolvers and began firing. In the midst of the gunfire, Mike Williams, evidently responding to assist Hickok, came around the corner of a building. In the dark, Hickok did not recognize the officer and Wild Bill mistakenly shot and killed Williams. The newspaper identified Williams as a policeman and as Hickok's deputy. Williams had been a city policeman but absolute proof that he was on the force at the time of his death cannot be located. It is probable that he was working as a special police officer for one of the halls, and still may have been on the city force. Hickok also may have asked him for assistance. Given the usual attitude toward law enforcement in that time period, it may be assumed that Williams was on the force, deputized by Hickok, or responding to assist an officer based upon his role as a special officer.

Alvin T. Wolf
Type of Officer: Sheriff's Patrol Sergeant
Jurisdiction: Butler County
County: Butler
Death Date: 4/19/1982
Added to Memorial: 1987
Circumstances of Death:
A semi-truck driver, involved in several hit and run accidents, was being pursued through Sedgwick County. As he approached the Butler County line, he encountered a roadblock that had been set up by the Butler County Sheriff's Department. The driver of the truck ran the roadblock and Deputy Wolf gave chase. Wolf passed the truck hoping to get in front and slow the truck down. The offending vehicle rammed the deputy's car several times, finally locking bumpers. The truck and patrol car left the road and rammed a house, killing Wolf instantly.