1971

January 31, 1971
Gunfire @ 5702 Gulf Fwy    

DOB – 12/21/1935, Age 41
Badge – 2296
Class #14
Final Resting – Earthman Resthaven, Houston, TX

It was a typical Saturday night and Officers D.W. Shirley and Robert W. Lee were in route to Central from Pearland Police Department with a juvenile suspect, they had picked up to transfer to Central. The radio was cracking with call after call and as unit 742 went silently down the Gulf Freeway toward Central, the dispatcher notified any unit clear and close that a robbery was in progress at the Enco Service Station, Wayside and Gulf Freeway. Officers Lee and Shirley began to turn around at Telephone and the Gulf Freeway to check by with another unit already responding to the call.

As they passed by the Kayo Service Station, Gulf Freeway service road and Telephone, Officer Shirley saw a black man with a gun to the back of the attendant. Officer Shirley told Lee, who was driving, to let him off by the mail box and he would wait for the suspect to come outside. Officer Lee drove the car around back of the station and advised the dispatcher what had taken place. Officer Lee got out, pulled his service revolver and proceeded toward the Kayo Service Station. They watched the suspect take the money from the attendant and out of the cash drawer. Unit 710 arrived on the scene as back-up. The officer's prisoner Charles Hill, 16, was watching from the back of the patrol car. He saw the robber leave the store, head a shot and saw Lee fall to the ground.

Officer Robert Wayne Lee was taken to Ben Taub Hospital and at 1:20 a.m. on Sunday,
December 31, 1972, he passed away. The suspect T. L Williams 24, was killed by other officers answering the robbery call. He was a construction worker.

Officer D.W. Shirley later became a detective. On April 28, 1982, while serving a fugitive warrant, Detective Shirley also lost his life at the hands of a suspect, he was trying to arrest.

Officer R.W. Lee is survived by his wife, Betty J. Lee; parents, Mr. and Mrs. Bryan J. Lee; grandmother, Mrs. Elma Dunn; sisters, Joan Kromer, Carolyn Arnold, Letitia Applegater; and brother, Larry G. Lee.

Source – Houston Police Department Museum Files