Officer Ula McMahan was shot and killed after responding to a disturbance.

On April 20, 1920 at 12:30 am, Officers Ula A. McMahan and Henry Harris were dispatched from Police Headquarters to 8th and Main on a theft call. The officers were walking south on Main Street when they heard the sound of shots being fired from behind them. They ran to Missouri Avenue where a crowd was gathering at a saloon at 6 West Missouri Avenue. Before the officers arrived, the suspect fatally wounded Kirk Tate, the part-owner of the saloon. McMahan spotted a man walking toward them on the sidewalk and stepped into his path. The man drew a revolver and shot Officer McMahan in the chest. Officer Mahan managed to return fire before collapsing. Officer McMahan died from his wounds at General Hospital. Harris shot at the robber, but the man escaped. Half an hour later the suspect, John Moore, was arrested after a fight with four patrolmen in an alleyway near Wyandotte and Delaware. He had been lying prone in an attempt to hide from officers and was in possession of a .38 caliber revolver with five spent rounds that he had attempted to draw on officers as they approached.

Officer McMahan, 42, joined the police department on December 1, 1919. He was employed for some time as a manager for the Van Noy News Company and later worked for a time as a special officer for the Missouri Pacific railroad and the American Railway Express Company. He was survived by his wife, Gladys. Interred: Highland Park Cemetery, Kansas City, KS.

Article by Brent Marchant