January 2014 Dallas Police shield

 

On January 14, 1970 the Dallas Morning News reported the death of Dallas Police Officer Robert Shipp. The article stated that Shipp, who had only turned 21 the past week, was riding with his partner E.E. Hardy in West Dallas.

The officers had stopped a traffic violator in the 1900 block of Akron which was a dead end street. The lone suspect was a 27 year old ex-convict who lived on Akron. As the officers attempted to stop the vehicle the suspect bailed out of the vehicle and started running towards a house which was later found to be his residence. Hardy caught up and grabbed the suspect and they began fighting. The suspect took Hardy’s weapon out of his holster and as Shipp came to the aid of his partner, the suspect fired one round from Hardy’s .38 revolver and hit Shipp in the lower left side.

Hardy then grabbed Shipp’s weapon and fired at the suspect, hitting him in the neck. About this time, the brother of the original suspect drives up and jumps out of his car. He then began fighting Hardy. The officer fortunately got the best of the interfering brother by whacking the suspect on the head with Officer Shipp’s service weapon. Officer Shipp was taken to PMH where he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.

Officer Shipp was a 1967 graduate of Samuell high school in the Grove. This was a time when many Dallas officers grew up in the Grove and others lived there during their time on the department, including this writer. I knew Officer Shipp’s younger brother, Gordon, who also went to Samuell. Officer Shipp was president of the student body and vice-president of his class. He was also a National Honor Society student and an all-district football standout in 1966. He had married is high school sweetheart, Paula Rush less than two months after he joined the DPD.

Officer Shipp was hired on at a time when the hiring age was lowered to 19 and a half years. The thinking was that the officer would turn 21 about the time he graduated the academy. I remember that in 1976, one had to be 21 to even apply, like in my case. I’m not sure what it is now. This was also a time when the DPD, as well as other departments around the country were having a hard time attracting recruits. The lowered age would have opened up a whole new pool of applicants.

Charged in the slaying were Charles Millage, 27 and David Glen Millage, 29. The younger brother who was shot by Officer Hardy, was in PMH and was thought at the time to be paralyzed from the gunshot wound to the neck. Later however, this brother died of the gunshot wound. The other brother was given a five-year prison term.

Officer Shipp is buried at Grove Hill Memorial Park.

A few days before Officer Shipp’s slaying, the manager of the Joker Club, 7341 Gaston Ave. had driven back to the club after she had closed up for the night. It seems a burglar alarm had gone off and as she drove behind the club she noticed the back door open. Not wanting to enter the open door, the manager instead entered the club through the front door and (of course) the burglar then ran out the still opened back door. Jerry Bishop was a regular patron of the club and a friend of the manager. He drove up to the club after the manager had called him to come and give her a hand searching the club. Bishop was still in his car when he saw the suspect running across a field behind the establishment and Bishop took off after him driving his car across the field. The manager says she heard two shots coming from the darkened field soon after. About this time Bishop drove back to the club with a gunshot wound to his head. The burglar had apparently turned and fired two shots at Bishop and hit him in the forehead after the rounds traveled through the windshield. Bishop was taken to PMH where he recovered from the wound. The burglar got away.

In other burglary news of the day a couple of bad guys broke into a home on Cherokee Trail near Love Field. They made off with a collection of firearms worth around $8,760.00 (?) Not $8,700.00, or $ 8,800.00 but…anyway.

Then later a burglar went into a DFD station on Lombardy Lane while the fireman were out fighting a fire. The thief took two fine (still black and white I’m sure) City of Dallas television sets. The burglar was pretty mad I would say because the captain of the fire station said that one of the sets didn’t work and that they had to bang on the set to get any type of reception. And, a rookie fireman’s job that day would be to stand by the set holding a TV antennae just right to get a signal from the towers at Cedar Hill! I’m sure the burglar thought twice from then on about burglarizing a City of Dallas facility again and risking his life and a somewhat savory reputation I’m sure. What’s really sad is that the fireman probably did without a TV for a couple of years before the City got around to replacing them.