Minot policeman killed by whiskey runner 100 years ago remembered

MINOT, N.D. – The car was creeping slowly through a Minot alley at 4:15 in the morning when it was stopped by night policeman Lee S. Fahler. A few moments later the sound of two gunshots pierced the night air. Both shots struck officer Fahler, knocking him to the ground.

Unable to get up, Fahler managed to turn on his side and, resting his elbow on the ground, returned fire three times. One of his shots struck his assailant who managed to flee the scene on foot and take refuge in the basement of a nearby house. Fahler died from his wounds the following morning.

The above described incident happened on Thursday, Jan. 21, 1921, just over 100 years ago. Fahler is the last officer of the Minot Police Department to be killed in the line of duty. A planned memorial service by the Minot PD on the anniversary of the unfortunate event was canceled due to coronavirus concerns.

“Even though it happened 100 years ago, Lee is still our brother,” said Aaron Moss, Minot PD crime prevention. “He was an officer following up instincts and no different today.”

Fahler worked the city streets in the era of prohibition, a nationwide ban on the production, importation, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages that went into effect Jan. 17, 1920. With the knowledge that illegal whiskey runners sometimes passed through Minot, or made deliveries in the city, Fahler’s instincts told him that a slowly moving vehicle in an alley during the early morning hours was cause for concern.

In an alley adjacent to the Ellison apartments, the same building located west of the Ward County Courthouse that burned last February, Fahler stopped the vehicle. According to the Ward County Independent, when the driver got out of the car Fahler pointed his .45 caliber revolver and called “stick ’em up!”

The driver, Avery Erickson of Chisholm, Minnesota, complied. However, when Fahler stepped on the running board of Erickson’s vehicle to see what was inside, Erickson opened fire with a previously concealed .38, striking Fahler.

Erickson was later found sitting in a basement corner of a “double house” by a man tending to the fire in a furnace at 5 a.m. At gunpoint Erickson requested a doctor and warned against contacting the police, but he was apprehended and taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital where he was operated on immediately. Fahler, clinging to life, was already there.

Despite his fearful wounds, Fahler remained conscious and able to tell his story. At one point he asked Police Chief McDonald, “Did I do my duty?” The fallen policeman was in such a dire condition that it was determined he would not survive the shock of surgery. Fahler died at 11:30 a.m. the following day, leaving behind a wife and an 8-year-old son.

Initially, Erickson was expected to recover from his gunshot wound. He was reported to be doing well until his weakened condition resulted in an onset of pneumonia. He died one week after the shooting. Erickson was survived by his wife, whom he had married just three weeks earlier. His profession, when not running whiskey, was as time-keeper for the city of Chisholm.

The vehicle Erickson was driving, a Studebaker 6, was discovered to be loaded with whiskey being transported from Regina, Saskatchewan to Minnesota. Additionally, the vehicle was stolen from a liquor dealer in that Canadian city.

Erickson was said to have been talking freely while in the hospital, admitting to the automobile theft and running of whiskey. And, despite an attempt to bribe Fahler, said he thought the policeman was a “high jacker” trying to steal his car and load.

“Fahler was enforcing a rather unpopular law, prohibition,” said Moss. “We’re still here to do our duty and the time honored tradition of enforcing the law and protecting the community we serve.”

Fahler was not wearing a policeman’s uniform when he stopped Erickson’s vehicle, something not entirely unusual for city police in 1921. His body was transported by the Great Northern Railway for burial in Eldora, Iowa.

Fahler’s widow and family brought a $30,000 lawsuit against the city which, apparently, had failed to make a timely payment for compensation insurance for city employees. The city balked at the suit. The lawsuit eventually found its way to the North Dakota Supreme Court which ruled in favor of the compensation.

Minot policeman killed by whiskey runner 100 years ago remembered

Follow us on Google News

Follow us on Flipboard

Trending Slider

Governor Kelly Armstrong responds to final environmental impact statement on Dakota Access Pipeline

Bismarck fire department holds pinning and promotional ceremony

Bismarck Police Department assists local child in delivering gifts to oncology patients

City of Bismarck announces holiday closures and service changes for Christmas week

Man who became angry days after he Iearned that he was expecting a chiId with his spouse, before he physicaIIy heId the woman and repeatedIy stepped on her beIIy in a bid to end her prregnancy, is sentenced

Mom and her partner, who would beat her 6-year-old chiId when he compIained of exhaustion after forcing him to perform strenuous physicaI activities because he soiIed himseIf, causing him to coIIapse and later die due to brain sweIIing and internaI stress, are sentenced

Follow us on News Break

Categories

Minot policeman killed by whiskey runner 100 years ago remembered

Related posts

Robbery at gunpoint in Minot

Stolen merchandise returned to Minot bookstore

Man who initiaIIy pointed his revoIver at his own head after removing all but one round while hanging out with a group of people before pointing the firearm at a woman he knew and puIIing the trigger, kiIIing her, is charged

Judge won’t lower bond for man charged with killing wife

Minot Police welcomes community to see the daily life of an officer

Police responded to a report of gun shots in south Fargo Friday morning

Follow us on Google News

Follow us on Flipboard

Governor Kelly Armstrong responds to final environmental impact statement on Dakota Access Pipeline

Bismarck fire department holds pinning and promotional ceremony

Bismarck Police Department assists local child in delivering gifts to oncology patients

City of Bismarck announces holiday closures and service changes for Christmas week

Man who became angry days after he Iearned that he was expecting a chiId with his spouse, before he physicaIIy heId the woman and repeatedIy stepped on her beIIy in a bid to end her prregnancy, is sentenced

Mom and her partner, who would beat her 6-year-old chiId when he compIained of exhaustion after forcing him to perform strenuous physicaI activities because he soiIed himseIf, causing him to coIIapse and later die due to brain sweIIing and internaI stress, are sentenced