Ruben Roy Farmer, Auxiliary Officer

Idabel Police Department

The evening of Sunday, January 20, 1980, a race riot broke out in Idabel over the unexplained shooting death of a black teenager. Shots were fired throughout the evening and several people were wounded including Officer Farmer. Farmer, 35, had previously served as an Idabel police officer before resigning and going into business in Idabel. Farmer was shot in the back with the bullet exiting his chest and was first treated at the McCurtain Memorial Hospital before being transferred Sunday evening to Wadley Hospital in Texarkana, Texas, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. His wife Kay and a daughter survived Farmer.