John Little

John Wesley Little (born December 7, 1867 in Jefferson County; died November 7, 1908 in Birmingham) was a Birmingham Police Department who was killed on duty in a shoot-out.

Little was one of ten children born to Thomas May and Sarah A. Little of Bradley's Camp near Morris. He married the former Nancy Vela Sharitt on December 14, 1890 and had seven children, one of which died in infancy.

Little worked as a coal miner, and later worked "in a position of trust" for Judge Lee Bradley, who befriended him and helped him to find subsequent employment with the Birmingham Railway Light & Power Company, and later with the Police Department. His home, near Rising Station, was damaged in a fire in 1907 and Bradley helped him to secure a $2,000 loan to rebuild.

In November of that year the department was investigating the illegal sale of whiskey. They were planning to raid the shop and home of former saloon-keeper J. W. "Willie" Harris at 813 3rd Avenue North. Just prior to the incident Harris' wife, Ida, had finished cooking supper and gone to a friend's house around the corner to prepare for a trip to town.

In advance of the planned raid, Little and fellow officer Jones visited the house seeking to arrest John H. Enslen, who had been named in a complaint and was believed to be there. Jones entered through the fromt while Little came to the back door. Jones was let in and walked through the parlor and dining room to the kitchen, where he observed A. Wilmer Womack, one of Harris' employees, sitting at the kitchen table eating supper with Harris' 16-month-old daughter, Lillian, in his lap. Not finding Enslen, Jones returned through the house to the front door, and then headed around the side to summon Little with his whistle, when he heard 10 or 12 shots. He re-entered at the kitchen door and saw Little and Harris firing at each other, and also saw Womack raise a gun to shoot him. Jones shot at Womack. The child was said to have been struck by a stray bullet. Little died immediately. Harris and his daughter were taken to Copeland's Infirmary where they were both pronounced dead.

Because Little was found with a bottle of whiskey at hand, it was presumed by police that he had confiscated it from an unknown person who left through the back door as he approached, and that he meant to go in and confront the seller. An alternate theory, advanced by Harris' friends, reckoned that Little thought Jones' whistle a signal to enter the house, and that he did so with his gun drawn, and immediately engaged in a shootout with Harris, with whom there had been previous disagreements. Because all three men were armed with .38 pistols, attempts to discern whose bullet killed the child were abandoned. A quantity of whiskey and beer was recovered during a search of the premises, with some of the whiskey matching the bottle found near Little.

Another shop clerk, Lucy Hunt, was working at the time. She reported that a man she had seen before, but whose name she did not know, ran through the shop toward the street immediately after the gunshots and jumped onto a bicycle. Ida Harris heard the shots from her friends' house and rushed to the scene. Also responding were Lieutenant Hagood and officers Larue, Justin, Newman and Henderson. Chief George Bodeker, Captain Martin Eagan, and Jefferson County Coroner W. D. Paris soon joined them.

Little's remains were returned to his family in Morris, and was was buried at Sardis Cemetery. The Birmingham News publicized a fund to benefit Little's surviving family by paying off the mortgage on their home and establishing a trust for the education of his children.

Judge Bradley wrote of Little, "In his official career he was absolutely incorruptible. No consideration could swerve him from the performance of his duty, and although in ordinary intercourse, he was modest and gentle, in the performance of his duty he was brave and bold. He was a model officer and in his private life an exceptional man."

References

• "Babe Among Those Slain In Desperate Pistol Fight." (November 9, 1908) The Birmingham News, p. 1, 2
• "Eloquent Tribute Paid The Martyred Officer." (November 10, 1908) The Birmingham News, p. 1
• "Will the Shelter Remain Over Widow and Orphans?" (November 12, 1908) The Birmingham News, p. 1, 7

External links

• John W. Little at Findagrave.com