Police officers honored decades after losing lives in the line of duty

DES MOINES - Reaching back into the history books, state officials honored five Iowa police officers killed in the line of duty in the 1800s and early in the 20th century in a formal ceremony Thursday.

One of those posthumously honored was Jacob Neibert, a member of the Muscatine Police Department who was killed June 13, 1896, when two men he tried to arrest for vagrancy overpowered him and shot him.

Neibert was able to provide a description of the men before he died at the age of 55. Two men were arrested but later released when it was determined they had nothing to do with the crime. Neibert's killers were never caught.

Eugene Meyer, commissioner of the Iowa Department of Public Safety, said the men's names were added because of a change of requirements for nomination for the honor.

Those changes will help create consistency with the national peace officer memorial in Washington, D.C., Meyer said.

The names of the officers were added to a memorial honoring peace officers near the Iowa State Capitol.

Gov. Chet Culver said Iowa's peace officers epitomize the state's value of serving others.

"These men and women have answered the call from their state to protect our streets, ensure the safety of our citizens and defend our way of life every day," Culver said.

Other names added to the memorial:

-- Charles C. Platner and George W. Wilson of the Council Bluffs Police Department. Platner died in 1905 when his partner's gun fell from its holster and discharged during a foot pursuit of a suspected burglar. Wilson was shot in 1907 during the search for a suspect in the shooting of another officer.

-- Constable Peter Scanlon, Dubuque County Sheriff's Office. Scanlon was shot in 1880 while trying to arrest a suspect in the beating death of his wife. Fishermen recovered Scanlon's body the next day.

-- Clarence Woolman, Pottawattamie County Sheriff's Office. Woolman was killed in Des Moines in 1911 while transporting a prisoner to a Knoxville hospital. While Woolman slept in a hotel, the prisoner took Woolman's gun and shot him before walking to a saloon and shooting the bartender.