Patrolman Ralph Howard

Ralph Howard was born in Texas on April 26, 1878 . He was a patrolman for the Fort Smith Police Department when he was shot and killed. He and his wife, Melville, lived at 811 Birnie Avenue in Fort Smith and had two children, Frank Jr., and Mrs. R.N. McLeod. Patrolman Howard was a member of the Dodson Avenue Assembly of God Church.

Patrolman Ralph Howard was fatally wounded in the same incident in which Captain William Bourland was killed. In the gun battle on Towson Avenue with the robbers from Spiro, Officer Howard was shot in the neck, in the chest, and through both hands. Following what the Southwest American, a Fort Smith newspaper, called “a gallant fight for life,” Officer Howard died at Sparks Hospital on September 4, 1931 , two days after being shot. Funeral records from Putman Funeral Home list his cause of death as septic pneumonia following gunshot wounds to the neck and chest. He was laid to rest on the 5th of September in the Oak Cemetery in Fort Smith . Patrolman Ralph Howard was 53 years old.