Skip to global navigation Skip to content Skip to search Skip to footer Skip to site map Access Key Legend
Global Navigation
Open Navigation
content
Fallen Heroes
Fallen Hero Shield
Officer William J. Kelly
Jacksonville Police Department
Incident Details
Cause of Death: Gunfire
Date of Incident: September 03, 1924
Location of Incident: Cedar Street
Weapon Used: Firearm, rifle
Suspect Info: Unknown, sentenced to death

Officer Kelly was shot and killed while attempting to arrest and take into custody some suspects at a brothel.

At about 3:15 pm Officer Kelly returned to a brothel on Cedar Street to make additional arrests after arresting a male and a female at the location. He had called for transportation from a nearby call box for the two he's arrested.

Upon returning to the house, he told the woman running the house to get ready to go downtown along with some men on the porch he was also arresting. As he stood in the doorway, he was shot by someone he hadn't seen from a back room. As he tried to exit, he was shot twice more. He flagged down a passing car and despite the gun battle, the two men in the car stopped and picked up Officer Kelly and took him to St. Luke's Hospital. Both men were also seriously wounded. Officer Kelly died from his wounds two days later at 10:00 am.

The shooter fled and was captured in New York City on May 7th, 1925. He was returned to Florida, tried, found guilty of first degree murder, and sentenced to be executed. No record exists of whether he was executed.

Officer Kelly was survived by his expectant wife, daughter, father, two brothers, and sister.

footer
Video Player Window Exit Youtube Player
Access Key Legend
Most browsers support jumping to specific links by pressing access keys on your keyboard. On Windows, you can press ALT + Access Key (Chrome), ALT + Access Key + Enter (Internet Explorer) or ALT + Shift + Access Key (Firefox); on Macintosh, you can press Control + Option + Access Key (Safari, Firefox, and Chrome). All pages on this site use the following access keys:
Access Key 1 : Navigation
Access Key 2 : Page Content
Access Key 3 : Search
Access Key 4 : Footer
Access Key 5 : Site Map Access Key 6 : Access Key Legend Visitors using the JAWS screen reader 8 or above can navigate using the following keystrokes: H to cycle forward through the headings
Shift + H to cycle backwards through the headings
1 to navigate to the next level 1 heading (or a number between 1 and 6 to navigate to the next heading on this level)
Shift + 1 to navigate to the previous level 1 heading (or a number between 1 and 6 to navigate to the previous heading on this level)
Insert + F6 to provide a list of all headings
We are committed to meeting the guidelines set forth by the American with Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG2). All pages on use structured semantic markup. H1 tags are used for main titles, H2 tags for subtitles. View the City of Jacksonville Americans with Disabilities Act Notice.
End Of Page