In the act...



Between 3 and 4am Monday morning, August 13, 2012 Greenville Patrol Officers from A-Platoon caught and arrested 2 suspects who were actively breaking into cars at South Square Apartments.   Prior to this,  on the same night, patrol officers found a man attempting to break into the Trade-Wilco Gas Station on SW Greenville Blvd.  That man, too, was caught and arrested.

Catching suspects "in flagrante delicto" is relatively unusual.  It can be a combination of timing, alertness,  and some luck.  But it is always rewarding for a police officer to have prevented a crime and captured a criminal.

Too often, officers arrive to the scene of a crime after an event has occurred.  As for preventing crimes, one can never know how many offenses are truly prevented by timely patrols, traffic stops or business checks.

Sixty years ago this week,  on August 16, 1952,   Greenville Police Officer Jesse E. Mills was checking businesses on his assigned beat when he came on 2 men breaking in to the New Deal Cleaners on Dickinson Avenue.

Officer Mills found a ladder pushed up against the building.  One man was on top the roof.  Another was hidden inside a doorway.   As Officer Mills found and confronted the 2 men, one of them pulled a revolver and shot Officer Mills at least 3 times from near point blank range.  

Officer Jesse Mills became the first Greenville Police Officer to be felonously killed in the line of duty.  When his body was found,  he was still wearing his cap and glasses.  His pistol was a lying few feet away.  His flashlight was in his hand, still shining.

A week long manhunt finally located and identified the 2 men who murdered Officer Jesse Mills.  They had come to Greenville earlier that day from Jacksonville and their car had broken down.   The 2 had just previously broken into another laundromat and their attempt at breaking into the New Deal Cleaners appears to have been done in order to get money to fix their broken car.

The men were convicted of murder and sentenced to long prison terms.  

To catch a criminal in the act requires being in the right place at the right time.  But as the death of Officer Jesse Mills clearly demonstrates,  there is also a chance of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

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