Today, I attended a memorial service at the Faribault City Hall for Faribault Police Officer Henry Kaepernick who was killed in 1876. The memorial event was coordinated by Faribault Police Chief Mike Lewis. Today marked the 130th anniversary of Officer Kaepernick’s death.
Chief Lewis announced that only recently had the circumstances of Officer Kaepernick’s death been discovered. The events were outlined in an email memo posted by Chief Lewis:
“Several guards had been posted to guard the Younger brothers who had earlier been apprehended near Madelia, MN and were brought to the Faribault city jail to stand trial for the attempted bank robbery in Northfield. Law enforcement officials suspected that the Jesse James Gang would attempt to break the Younger brothers out of the city jail and had stepped up security. The guards were told to be alert for the James gang as there was a high probability that the James gang would use some sort of trickery to get the brothers out of jail.
At approximately 4:00 am, Officer Henry Kaepernick was approaching the city jail, which was located near the current city hall location, when a guard ordered him to stop. Officer Kaepernick told the guard that he was a police officer and opened his jacket to show his badge. The guard, thinking Kaepernick was going for a gun, fired one shot striking Kaepernick in the chest, killing him instantly. Officer Kaepernick was 29 years old and was buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery.”
According to Chief Lewis, Officer Kaepernick’s sacrifice had been forgotten and was recently brought to light by a researcher for the Officer Down Memorial Page website: ODMP.org. Paperwork has been submitted to have Officer Kaepernick’s name added to the Law Enforcement Memorial Wall in Washington, DC.