John Little

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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, which had been made illegal in Jefferson County that January. 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 E. H. Jones visited the house seeking to arrest John H. Enslen, who had been named in a complaint about disorderly conduct and was believed to be there. The two officers had arrested Harris on liquor charges previously, and it was said that Harris had threatened Little personally, that "if he ever entered his house again he would either have to carry him out dead or die himself".

According to his account, Jones was grudgingly admitted through the front door by Harris while Little waited by the back door in case Enslen should try to slip out. Jones was ushered 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 with Harris to the front door, and then headed around the side to summon Little with his whistle, when he heard gunshots. He burst through the kitchen door and saw Little and Harris both wounded and firing at each other. He attempted to disarm Little when a shot behind him from Womack grazed his neck and hit Little in the jaw. Jones then shot and killed Womack, who fell against the girl, crushing her head against a crate of whiskey. Little died at the scene. Harris and his daughter were likely also dead, but were taken to Copeland's Infirmary where they were both pronounced, and a bullet recovered from the girl's abdomen. All of the bodies were then brought to Lige Loy undertakers.

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. Because all three men were armed with .38 special pistols, attempts to assign each bullet to its source were abandoned. Little's revolver was noted to have been emptied. 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. Bodeker had Jones detained until the shooting was investigated. Enslen was found and placed under arrest later that night.

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.

Bodeker stated that, "Little was one of the best men who ever put on a policeman's uniform. He was a Christian gentleman and in all of my experience with him I never heard him swear an oath. He had always proven himself a very discreet and a very cool officer, and I never know him to hesitate to do his duty." 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."

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