Hugh L. Rogers, Officer
Ada Police Department
About 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, November 4, 1926, Ada Police officers Hugh Rogers and Luther Prince were leaving a filling station across the street from the Stockton Hotel. As the officers left, hotel proprietor J.E. “Dick” Weems came out of the hotel and called them across the street. As the officers walked across the street Weems stepped back inside the hotel. When Rogers and Prince entered the hotel, Weems began berating them for raiding his hotel the previous night and then stepped inside his room. The two officers left but were notified by a lady resident that Weems was armed. The officers decided to return and arrest Weems.
As Rogers approached Weems’ room, he jumped out of the door and shoved a .38 pistol in Rogers’ chest. Officer Prince drew his gun and fired once at Weems missing him. Rogers then drew his Colt .45 and he and Weems began struggling and trading shots. Eight shots were fired, four of them hitting Weems and three hitting Rogers. Officer Rogers died at the scene and Weems died about two hours later.
Officer Hugh Rogers was survived by his wife and one child.
William Pytchlyn, Officer
Ada Police Department
William “Bill” Pytchlyn joined the Ada Police Department on October 1, 1934. An Ada businessman had been robbed by two black men and he requested that Bill Pytchlyn receive a “special commission as a colored officer” because he thought he would have a better chance of solving the crime than white officers. The commission was issued.
Officer Pytchlyn had been commissioned slightly over a month when he was accosted by two suspects, Oliver Jackson and Cruce Moses, in the black area of North Broadway on Sunday evening, November 11, 1934. Both suspects were armed and the officer attempted to disarm them. In the process, he was shot in one arm and the chest. Jackson was arrested and later released on bond. Moses escaped with the weapons that had been used in the shooting.
Officer Bill Pytchlyn, 30, died from his wounds on Tuesday, November 27, 1934.