KCPD Memorial Lest We Forget
Honoring the Fallen
Officer
Andrew Lynch
Kansas City, MO Police Dept
EOW: Sunday, May 4, 1913
Date of incident: Apr 30, 1913
Age: 37
DOB: Aug 23, 1875
Tour of Duty: 5 years
Cause: Gunfire
Suspect: 2 Life sentences

Officer Andrew Lynch was shot and killed while attempting to arrest robbery suspects

On April 30, 1913, Officer Andrew Lynch was in C.F. Alexander's drug store when he observed two suspicious men outside the store that answered the description of the suspects of recent drug store robberies in the area. Officer Lynch, who was in uniform, approached the men at Ninth Street and Benton Boulevard. According to one suspect account, Officer Lynch had approached them and asked them where they lived. Officer Lynch reached out and touched one suspect on the hip, discovering and retrieving the susupects handgun. The second suspect then opened fire, shooting Officer Lynch with another handgun. Officer Lynch's holstered handgun was wrenched away from him with such force that the belt the holster was attached to was broken. The first suspect then shot Officer Lynch with his own revolver. Officer Lynch attempted to defend himself unsuccessfully with the handgun he had retrieved from the first suspect. The two men fled the scene on foot but encountered KCPD police Sergeant Dennis Whalen and were arrested still in possession of Officer Lynch's handgun. The first suspect confessed to holding up three drug stores in the last three weeks and to shooting a man right before meeting up with Officer Lynch during a street robbery and to the intention of robbing the Alexander drug store. Officer Lynch, who had been shot in the nose, mouth, right lung and twice in the abdomen, declared to his attending physician that "You can't kill the Irish." Officer Lynch died of his wounds May 4, 1913 at German Hospital. Both suspects were sentenced to life in prison.

Officer Lynch was appointed to the police department in October 1907. His parents, Andrew and Sarah Lynch were Irish immigrants.
Interred: Fon du Lac Township Cemetery, East Peoria, Illinois.

Article by Brent Marchant

Kansas City Police Memorial