Lester A. (Chester) Shearhart, Chief of Police
Vinita Police Department
On the night of Friday, May 4, 1945, Chief Shearhart and two other officers went to the farmhouse of Silas Hardrick. The officers were searching for a forgery suspect. When they arrived at the farmhouse, Hardrick told the officers the man they were looking for was in the barn behind the house. While the officers went to the barn, Hardrick came out of the house and hid in a ditch with a twelve-guage shotgun. Locating no one in the barn, Shearhart came back to the front of the house. As he came back around to the front of the house, Hardrick shot him in the heart, wounding him fatally. Shearhart died 30 minutes later at a hospital in Vinita. Hardrick was arrested by the other officers and charged with murder. Chief Shearhart, 44, was survived by his wife, four sons and one grandchild. He was serving the remainder of the term of the previous Chief who had resigned. Shearhart had been elected to the Chief’s position the previous March and had been due to take office to begin serving his own term on May 7th.