Gerald Wayne "Jerry" Bratcher, Lieutenant

Norman Police Department

About 4 P.M., Sunday, November 24, 1963, Lieutenant Bratcher was three miles east of Norman on Highway 9 returning from a stolen car investigation when he was involved in an automobile accident. Both Bratcher and the driver of the other vehicle died from their injuries after arriving at St. Anthony’s Hospital in Oklahoma City. Bratcher, 29, was survived by a wife, a son and two daughters.

Dale Ellis DeBerry, Sergeant

Norman Police Department

Sergeant DeBerry was participating in an annual physical training exercise on Tuesday, December 1, 1998, when he suffered a fatal heart attack. Other Norman officers at the scene administered CPR but Sergeant DeBerry died shortly after arriving at the hospital. Sergeant DeBerry left behind his wife, Tonya and two young children

Melvin Oliver Miner, Officer

Norman Police Department

On Sunday evening about 8 P.M., July 30, 1972, Norman officers chased Orben Gill, Jr. to a mobile home park near Stubbeman Avenue. Gill had just shot and killed his parents east of Noble. Gill opened shotgun fire on the approaching officers. Officer Robert Brown was wounded in the arm and Officer Miner, 25, was struck in the head and died just after midnight the next morning, July 31st, at St Anthony Hospital in Oklahoma City. Gill was sentenced to life in prison for the three murders. Officer Miner was survived by his wife Raetta and 3 year old son Corey. Twenty-two years later Corey would become an Officer with the Norman Police Department and later a Trooper, with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.