Archives: Fallen Officers

Harold A. Reis, Jr.

Deputy Harold Reis was assigned to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Norwalk Station at the time of his death. Deputy Reis was en route to a call when the radio car he was driving was hit broadside by another vehicle.

Donald J. Gillis

Joseph L. Carlock, a 65-year-old San Diego auto mechanic, was sentenced to life in prison for the slaying of Lt. Donald J. Gillis, 45, on Sept. 20, 1958. Carlock was convicted by a jury of first-degree murder and sentenced by Superior Judge William A. Glen.

Gillis, a veteran Los Angeles County sheriff’s lieutenant, was killed in the Laguna Mountain recreation area, about 50 miles east of San Diego, where he was spending a weekend camping with his wife, Leatha.

Carlock, a retired naval air station employee, was said by police to have been “apparently intoxicated” at the time.

San Diego County Coroner A.E. Gallagher said Carlock drove into the Gillis’ camp area in search of a deer hunting party from which he had become separated.

The coroner said witnesses told him that Gillis tried unsuccessfully to help Carlock locate his friends, then told him, “Get into your car and sleep it off. We’ll help you find your party in the morning.”

As Gillis headed back to his parked station wagon, Carlock took a rifle from his car and fired two shots into the air.

The Los Angeles officer went back, disarmed Carlock and headed back to his station wagon again.

When he faced in Carlock’s direction again, according to the police report, Carlock grabbed a second rifle from his car and fired, a bullet striking Gillis in the chest. He died almost instantly.

Investigators said Carlock claimed he fired the shot in self-defense, in that he saw Gillis holding the rifle, headed toward him.

Gillis had been with the sheriff’s department for 20 years and was assigned to the Firestone substation.

Robert L. Shultz

On April 21, 1958, Deputy Sheriff Robert Shultz, 35, was shot and killed while on duty in the Dana Point area. Patrol Deputies Ed Johnson and Robert Shultz stopped an old converted school bus from Arizona on information it contained a mentally disturbed father threatening his wife, daughter and two sons.

After stopping the northbound bus in Dana Point, Deputy Johnson talked the father into putting his weapon down and leaving the bus. As Deputy Johnson was talking with the father outside the bus, Deputy Shultz was fatally shot once through the heart by the older of two sons inside the bus. Deputy Johnson was also shot twice, critically. The father returned to the bus and a gunfight ensued with the one critically wounded officer.

After a period of firing by both sides, the Deputy collapsed from his two initial wounds but not before radioing for assistance. On the arrival of assisting officers, the father was found dead, wounded three times by the officer’s bullets and once, through the head, by his own. The older son was found with five wounds from the Deputy’s weapon and died at the hospital. The younger son was found dead with one round through the top of his head from the father’s weapon.

The second Orange County Deputy Sheriff had given his life as a result of gunfire. His partner still carries two .22 caliber slugs located in inaccessible parts of his back and hip.