Officer Neil Mooney
End of Watch : January 8, 1914
Duluth Police Department
| Officer Neil MooneyEnd of Watch : January 8, 1914Duluth Police Department |
| OFFICER NEIL MOONEY DULUTH PD DIED January 8, 1914 On Tuesday, January 6, at 9:00 p.m., Officer Neil Mooney was attempting to arrest two men on breach of the peace charges. In a statement made just before he died, Mooney said a man at Gary was reported to be flashing a revolver. Mooney responded and found two men. The taller of the two was loading a revolver. Mooney took the gun away from him and placed him under arrest. He then saw the shorter suspect and arrested him too. At the three were coming down Commonwealth Avenue, the smaller of the two suspects suddenly turned and fired point blank at Mooney. Mooney jumped on the man and took the revolver away, striking the suspect on the head with the butt of his revolver several times. By this time, Mooney was getting weak due to the loss of blood and the two suspects escaped. Mooney then crawled one black to the Gary land office where an ambulance was called and he was taken to the West Duluth Hospital. He had been hit in the right side, striking a rib and possibly his liver. Mooney gave other officers a description of the suspects. They searched until 3:00 a.m. but could not locate the suspects. The next day, a clerk at the Northern Pacific Station noticed marks on Joseph Zori, 21, and called police who arrested him there. Zori (aka Jovan Zoria) allegedly confessed and admitted he was the one who struggled with the officer and the one who fired the shot. He did not know where his partner went, but identified him as Savo Rekoch, 23. Neither suspect spoke much English. Mooney died of his wounds on January 8. He was the second Duluth officer to die in the line of duty. Ironically, the incident happened on the third anniversary of Officer Chesmore's death. Officer Mooney was born June 3, 1881. He had been employed with Duluth PD since June 1, 1912. He was survived by his fiance Blanche Middlestadt. Sourced from: The book "We Will Remember" With permission from Lisa Lovering, Author and Board of Director MN Law Enforcement Memorial Association L.E.M.A. 2009 |
| George B Anderson | August Kokko |