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New Hero Search Samuel D. Hicks
- Aug. 09, 1936 -
(289)

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Miami Police Dept. Patch
Resided: FL, USA
Born: Jan. 02, 1888  
Fallen: Aug. 09, 1936
Race/Sex: Caucasian Male / 48 yrs. of age
Agency
Dept: Miami Police Dept. - FL
400 NW 2nd Avenue  
Miami, FL   33128   USA
(305)603-6640
County: Miami-Dade
Dept. Type: Municipal/Police
Hero's Rank: Patrolman
Sworn Date: 1925
FBI Class: Traffic - Drunk Driver
Weapon Class: Vehicle
Agency URL: Click Here
On The Job: 11 years
Bio: Samuel D. Hicks, 48, was born on Jan. 2, 1888, in Ashford, AL (in Houston County in the southeast corner of the state). His father, Louis H. Hicks, and his mother, Mary Moore Hicks, were also born in Ashford, AL. Samuel Hicks was the 3rd of 6 children. His two older brothers were Ambus (born on July 31, 1881) and Walton. According to the 1910 census, the younger siblings of Samuel D. Hicks, 20, were Luke M., 19; Charles M., 16; and Thomas J. Little is known of the "early years" of Samuel Hicks except that family members report that he worked for the railroad in AL as a young man. Marriage records in Houston County, AL, indicate that Samuel Hicks, 19, married Gussie Wimberly, 15, on Aug. 11, 1907, at the home the bride's family (Mr. & Mrs. N.E. Wimberly). The 1910 census indicates that their son, Louis H., 1, was born in AL. A second son, Homer Lee Hicks, was born in 1915. Both boys were born while the family lived in Dothan, AL. Samuel Hicks, 36, moved his family to Miami in 1924 and joined the Miami Police Department in 1925 at a time when the Department was expanding rapidly. The force grew from 40 men to 350 men between 1921-1925 as the city was experiencing the real estate boom. Officer Hicks was among the three-fourths of the force that was assigned to traffic duty in downtown Miami as traffic lights were not installed until the spring of 1925 and traffic was "at a virtual halt for long periods daily" as the city "faced the alarming prospect of drowning in a sea of automobiles."

Officer Hicks had been assigned to the "negro district" during most of his 11 years with the department. He evidently had something of a reputation in that area as the Herald said that he was known as the "nemesis of dark town law-breakers." One white woman who refused to give her name went to the police station and said she had overheard four negroes plotting Hicks' death three weeks earlier. According to her story, one man suggested Hicks be stabbed, another that he be shot and a third that they run him over with a car since the latter method would only result in manslaughter if they were caught. Both the lead homicide detective and the police chief "discounted" the woman's story. However, Police Chief John B. Rowland did admit that Hicks' "life had been threatened a number of times by negroes."

Survived by:
Louis H. Hicks - Son

son Homer Lee Hicks, 21

Fatal Incident Summary
Offender: Heanon Aarons
  
Location: FL   USA   Sun. Aug. 09, 1936
Summary: Miami Police Officer Samuel D. Hicks, 48, an 11-year veteran, was killed by a drunk driver on Sunday night, Aug. 9, 1936. Hicks was hit and killed by a two-ton truck driven by a drunk driver as he and another officer were standing by the roadside examining a car they had just chased and stopped by shooting out the tires. This car was also driven by a drunk driver. Thus Officer Hicks was killed by a drunk driver while investigating a separate drunk driving incident. Officer Hicks became the 14th Miami officer killed in the line of duty. It appears that drunk driving and fatal traffic accidents were quite frequent in Miami at this time period. An article in the Miami Daily News on Aug. 13, 1936, indicated that Miami was fourth in the nation in per capita traffic fatalities (after Camden, NJ; Nashville, TN; and Richmond, VA). It also appears from this case that drunk driving was a serious problem in that both the car and the truck involved in this incident were driven by drivers who were drunk.

Also, the Miami Daily News on Aug. 12, 1936, reported that the Miami Police Department was offering free taxi services via its patrol cars to anyone who was drunk and didn't want to drive. The newspaper suggested that no other city in the country offered such a service. Clearly, this rather drastic step was taken as one approach to a very serious problem.

It should also be noted that this case marks the third Dade County police officer killed by a drunk driver in a 15-year period. The other two were Frank Croff of the Miami Police Department in 1921 and Cy Guest of the Coral Gables Police Department in 1928.

Patrolmen Hicks and Raleigh Hill were on "special Sunday night patrol duty" around 9:30PM and, according to the Miami Tribune, were "working overtime without pay...under orders from Safety Director Andrew J. Kavanaugh and Police Chief John B. Rowland." The newspaper further reported that Hicks was assigned to patrol duty from 7:00AM to 3:00PM daily but "was forced to take an extra two hours patrol duty in the negro section every Saturday and Sunday night." He was "preparing to go off duty" when the fatal incident occurred.

Ironically, the City would later claim that it was not required to pay any pension to Officer Hicks since he was working as an unpaid "volunteer" when he was killed. The family got a small amount of money from the PBA but no government benefits.

The incident began when a car occupied by five negroes sped past the two officers and "failed to stop at their command." The officers gave chase and "fired several shots at the car before they were able to overtake it." The pursued car stopped at the corner of N.W. First Ave. and 17th St. after a "wild three-block chase." Officer Hicks's gunfire had punctured the rear tires of the car and forced it to stop. The driver, "who was apparently drunk," jumped out and escaped but the four passengers remained with the car. One of the passengers, "Fletcher Parker, 25, negro, was found slumped in the seat, a bullet wound in his neck." He had been wounded with Hicks' pistol and was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital and listed in serious condition.

Police later learned that the car stopped by Officers Hicks and Hill was stolen and announced a search for the escaped driver of the car, "a former negro service station employee." On Aug. 20, 1936, police arrested "Nick Howard, 23, negro," for auto theft after determining that he was the driver of the car stopped by Officer Hicks. Police determined that the car "had been stolen from the Redland Motor Co.'s used car lot."

The two officers had finished searching the "bullet-ridden" automobile and had placed the four passengers under arrest but were still standing in the street by the stolen auto when the "two-ton lumber truck driver by Heanon Aarons, 25, "lurched" around the corner at a high rate of speed. The two officers saw the speeding truck heading for them and "waved flashlights as the truck bore down on them." They then tried to leap from the path of Aarons' truck.

Officer Hill was able to get out of the path of the truck but Officer Hicks, who had attempted to "dash to the rear of his police patrol car" was "struck down before he could gain safety." He "was thrown to the pavement and a rear wheel passed over his head." Officer Hicks was rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital where "despite blood transfusions and desperate efforts of physicians," he died of head injuries an hour later (10:27PM).

The truck was so heavy and traveling so fast (later estimated at 50 mph) that it "skidded nearly 50 feet with locked wheels before it came to a stop." Aarons, the driver, was so drunk he "staggered" and "was unable to walk" and was arrested at the scene by officers in a radio patrol car that had arrived at the scene earlier to transport the men in the first car to jail. He was "pronounced drunk" at police headquarters by Dr. W.B. Keating, police physician. Homicide Det. A.N. Clark would later tell the coroner's jury that Aarons was still "staggering drunk" when he attempted to question him in the city jail two hours after the fatal crash.

Det. Clark took a statement from Aarons the following day since he was "too intoxicated to make a statement Sunday night." Aarons was held in jail on an open charge pending the coroner's inquest. His two passengers, a stepson and daughter, were "held in city jail for investigation, pending the inquest."

The Hicks case received more coverage in Miami newspapers than any other "traffic" killing of an officer. The "gunplay" involved and the "double drunk driver" factor probably played some part in the increased coverage but it also appears that the presence in 1936 of three Miami newspapers (the Herald, Daily News, and Tribune) led to something akin to a newspaper war. The Tribune was a tabloid and featured sensational headlines and pictures of violence. The Hicks case made page one of the Tribune for three days with bold headlines on two days ("Auto Speeder Kills Cop" and "Suspects Murder in Hicks Death") and a picture of Hicks on the third day.

Disposition: An inquest was held before justice of the peace Thomas S. Ferguson on Wednesday, August 12. Several witnesses presented testimony to the coroner's jury which ruled that Aaron's actions were "criminally negligent." He was charged with manslaughter and bond was set at $5,000. He could not raise the bond and thus was detained in jail. A search of court records at the Dade County archives failed to discover the outcome of Aaron's trial for manslaughter and there was no mention of the trial in local newspapers after Aug. 12. The FL Department of Corrections has no record of Aarons being admitted to the prison system in 1933 or 1934.

Source: Book       Excerpted in part or in whole from Dr. Wilbanks book-

FORGOTTEN HEROES: POLICE OFFICERS KILLED IN DADE COUNTY, FL, 1895-1995

by William Wilbanks

Louisville: Turner Publications

1996

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