San Diego police officers were killed in the early 1900s

In the summer of 1915, the San Diego police sergeant. Oliver Hopkins, one day withdrawn from his promotion, was killed in the exercise of his duties while he was trying to stop on a delivery truck on his motorcycle.

Twelve years later, in the spring of 1927, the detective SDPD Charles Harris was killed in Balboa park during an operation intended to apprehend a serial thief.

Thursday afternoon, decades after the police lost their lives, they received the cross from the police from the San Diego police department with their descendants, some of whom traveled from the outside of the state.

“Each of us wears this uniform, wears this badge, we spend the vast majority of our life,” said chief Scott Wahl on Thursday at a ceremony organized at the headquarters of the department, “and when we give the ultimate sacrifice, knowing that your memory will never be forgotten is a very important thing that we appreciate in this organization.”

Wahl presented families gathered with an American folded flag and the police cross awarded to the police killed in the exercise of his functions.

Hopkins, from Illinois, born in 1870, was personally recruited from the San Diego police department by the chief of the time, J. Keno Wilson, Lieutenant Travis Easter said Thursday. Hopkins joined the department in 1911 and was promoted to a motorcycle agent before being promoted to sergeant on July 1, 1915.

On July 2, Hopkins tried to stop on a truck that accelerated and recklessly led what is now Imperial Avenue.

The truck struck Hopkins, whose motorcycle has been in the wing of the truck, said Easter. Hopkins was dragged for a city block before being thrown to the ground. He was transported to a sanatorium where he died of his injuries.

The driver of the truck, who was allegedly drunk, was arrested by chief Wilson himself.

Hopkins left his wife and three children in mourning, one of whom was the father of Shirlee Smith who attended the ceremony after traveling his home in Arizona with her husband.

“My father was only five years old (when Hopkins died) so it’s just stories,” said Smith. “We had a photo of him standing next to his motorcycle, an excelsior from 1915 … A bicycle on steroids with an engine, fundamentally.”

But the family immersed himself in the history of Hopkins and discovered more information on their ancestor, including information on their stay in Cuba during the Spanish-American war in the late 1890s.

A few months before the ceremony on Thursday, Smith’s sister received a telephone call informing him that the San Diego Police Historical Association has been looking for Hopkins’ descendants since 2017.

“It was wonderful that he was recognized like that and that we were able to come,” she said.

Smith donated Hopkins police to the Historical Society.

Harris, from Arkansas, born in 1876, joined the department in 1911, finally gaining the rank of detective, said Easter.

On April 3, 1927, Harris participated in an operation targeting a “prolific thief” in Balboa park, said Easter.

Harris and a police pretended to be a couple in the park and waited to be approached by the suspect. Another pair of officers did the same in a different section of the park.

According to Easter, Harris and her partner went to an area behind Roosevelt Middle School and waited. Some time after 8 p.m. Harris started the vehicle in which they were and prepared to return to the police headquarters.

The police were approached by the suspect, armed with a pistol and a flashlight, who said: “It was a stickup.”

In a gap compared to the usual model of the suspect, said Easter, the suspect shot his weapon over Harris, striking him at least twice. Harris rippled but was fatally injured.

“He had me,” said Harris.

Marina Wright police, Harris partner, brought the vehicle back to the siege of the passenger seat because they could not move Harris’s body.

A suspect in the case has never been identified.

Harris has left his wife and their 10 -year niece in mourning that the couple raised.

Donna Morey, whose grandmother was the 10-year-old girl, accepted the cross and the flag with her two daughters and her grandson.

“I have always known something about Charlie, between my grandmother and my mother, and I have always been curious to know what happened,” she said.

Thanks to the San Diego Police Museum, the family learned pieces in Harris’ history.

“I just think it’s a special honor,” said Morey. “And I’m very proud. I am proud that he is a police officer. “

Originally published: April 3, 2025 at 6:46 p.m.