On August 25, 1920, Patrolmen Frank S. Hallet, Joseph La Croix, and S.J. Lee, all members of the third precinct shotgun squad, were in their patrol car and on their regular nightly tour of inspection looking for burglars and highwaymen.

Patrolman La Croix was at the wheel as they were driving toward the river on Franklin Avenue. Near Thirty-second Avenue South they observed a small touring car being driven in the opposite direction at high speed toward the city. The policemen threw their searchlight into the car and could see the four men occupants plainly.

When the squad members reached the bridge they turned back. The other car had not increased its pace and they soon overtook it. As they passed, the searchlight was again used and another view of the interior of the car was obtained. The two men in the back seat were seen to pull their coat collars up, but they did not duck their heads. The squad car fell behind again and the officers consulted one another.

Patrolman Hallet suggested they might be moonshiners and it was decided to halt them. Both cars passed Twenty-seventh Avenue and Patrolman La Croix increased his speed with the intention of crowding the other car to the curb on the farthest side of Twenty-sixth Avenue. But instead of crossing, the other car turned north into Twenty-sixth Avenue.

Patrolman Hallet jumped out before the police car stopped and took a few steps toward the other automobile which was moving slowly, although Hallet had called upon the driver to halt. Patrolman Hallet, with Patrolman Lee behind him, approached the other car, passing behind it.

As Hallet came alongside the strange car, and before he had time to ask a question, one of the men in the back seat opened fire, three bullets taking effect in the policeman's head. Before Patrolman Lee, who ducked behind the machine as Hallet fell, could draw his pistol, the driver of the bandit car threw on the power and speeded toward Twenty-fifty Avenue on Franklin.

Unprepared for such an event, Patrolman Lee retrieved his sawed off shotgun and sent a volley of buckshot after the rapidly disappearing car, but it was already nearly a block away, with the other driving turning out his lights.

Without waiting to pick up Patrolman Hallet's body, the two policeman started pursuit, firing from their sawed off shotguns as they drove, but their car was soon outdistanced. The chase ended when the quarry finally disappeared in Riverside Park. The officers were unable to tell if anyone in the touring car was hit.

Hurrying to the nearest patrolbox, a call was sent to headquarters and the General hospital. The ambulance took Hallet's body to the morgue.

Captain John J. Galvin, acting chief, ordered the precinct shotgun squads out and, reinforced by several automobiles filled with detectives, a systematic search for the gunmen was begun, but no trace of them could be found.

Neither Patrolman Lee nor La Croix obtained the license number, but they gave a fair description of the occupants. The one who did the shooting, they said, was about 35 years old, weighed probably 190 pounds, was light complexioned, pale, smooth shaven, wore a light shirt, soft collar, gray suit and a dark fedora hat. The man beside him in the back seat was about 30 years old, 150 pounds, dark, with several days growth of beard. He wore a top coat and no collar. The driver, they said, wore a dark shirt and a fedora hat and the fourth man wore a cap.

Captain Galvin added that he had given orders to all members of the shotgun squads that when one of their members approaches a strange car or other suspicious object, for the others to "cover it" with their riot guns so as to prevent a repetition of this tragedy.

Several hours after the shooting, police found the car used by the bandits abandoned at Twelfth Avenue South and Ninth Street. It had no bullet holes in it, but police believed it was the car because it had a license number in front and two others in the back seat, all different, indicating that it was a stolen car. The owner had not been found.

Mayor J.E. Meyers announced that he would offer a reward for the capture of any or all of the gunmen who shot and killed Patrolman Hallet. But in spite of the police department throwing its full force into the search for the patrolman's murderers, they were never apprehended.

Clues later obtained by the police led to the conclusion that the four men were whiskey smugglers and that they shot down Hallet rather than have their car, which was reported to have been filled with illegal whiskey, searched and evidence of their illicit trade discovered.

Patrolman Hallet was 45 years old. He lived at 1092 Fourteenth Avenue SE and was survived by his wife and two children. He joined the police force 11 years earlier and was assigned to the second precinct station, was later transferred to central station and finally to the third precinct.

The killing of Hallet was identical in nearly all details to the slaying of Patrolman John F. Young on July 13, 1919.

The bullet that killed Patrolman Hallet was 32 caliber, steel jacketed, and it was found at a postmortem examination conducted at the morgue. It was lodged in the brain.

Funeral services for Hallet were conducted at the family home and at the First Methodist Church, Fifth Street and Ninth Avenue SE. Six of Hallet's comrades were pallbearers and an escort of 100 policeman headed by the police band, escorted the body to Hillside cemetery where interment took place on August 28, 1920.

A fund was started at the Midland National Bank for the family of Patrolman Hallet. Contributions passed the $300.00 mark. The money collected was to be used to pay off a mortgage of $1,500.00 on the Hallet family home and otherwise aid the stricken family.