1969

November 26, 1969
Gunfire  @ 139 E. 20th

DOB – 12/19/1932, Age 36
Badge – 1860
Class #28
Final Resting place – Earthman Resthaven, Houston, TX  

Radio Patrolman Kenneth W. Moody was shot in the darkened hallway of Hamilton Junior High School, 20th and Heights Boulevard, at 1:02 a.m. on Wednesday, November 26, 1969. Officer Moody was hit in the dark hall of the school by a gunman, who opened fire from a first-floor stairway as Moody and his partner, R.R. Dietrich, investigated a silent burglar alarm. Moody and Dietrich returned fire until Moody was struck. As Dietrich pulled Moody out of the line of fire, other police units arrived. Officer Moody was dead upon arrival at the hospital.

The gunman, wounded in the school shootout, was identified by fingerprints as Wesley Sellers, who had police records in Texas, Utah and California. Sellers had been sentenced in Houston in 1966, to 99 years in jail for a burglary conviction. Sellers' sentence was overturned by a federal judge in 1968 and he was released.

Officer K.W. Moody had been in the Houston Police Department for six years. Officer K.W. Moody is survived by his wife, Elva; son, Gregory; daughter, Wendy; mother, Mrs. L.W. Miller; and sister, Mrs. Rod Beasley.

Source – Houston Police Department Museum Files