The Salina Police Department taking time Friday to remember the last officer in Salina to die in the line of duty.

On Friday June 13, 1975, Patrolman 27-year-old Jerry Ivey was shot and killed by a suspect armed with a Browning high-powered 9-mm semi-automatic pistol after he stopped a car used in a robbery of the Dillon’s at Sunset Plaza moments earlier.

The suspect Roy Earl Shultz jumped from the car, sprayed the officer with mace, and both men drew their weapons. Ivey fired six rounds and the suspect fired twelve. As Ivey attempted to reach his shotgun in the patrol car, the suspect shot him in the back. Following a chase and additional gunfire, the suspect was captured by several police officers.

Shultz was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life. On July 19, 1977, he escaped from the state prison in Lansing .

Six days later a family of three found themselves at the mercy of the suspect when they stopped to give him aid after the stolen car he was driving broke down near Washington, Illinois. At gunpoint the suspect forced the man and his wife to drive him to a Ramada Inn in Bloomington.

After he bound and gagged the man, Shultz attempted to rape the couples 5 year-old little girl. The woman was able to grab the suspects gun, free her husband, and then they both beat him into submission. The suspect was returned to prison where he died January 2, 1984.

(Information supplied from Salina Police Department, Officer Down Memorial website, and the Kansas Law Enforcement Memorial Foundation)