Officer John Wilson was shot and killed as he and two other officers were questioning suspicious men in a downtown office across from the Tippecanoe County Courthouse.

   As the two men exited the building, they opened fire on the officers wounding Officer Wilson and the other two officers. A civilian at the scene picked up one of the officer's machine guns and returned fire, wounding both 29-year-old suspects.

   Officer Wilson died from his wounds two days later at Saint Elizabeth Hospital.

   Both men, and a third, 45-year-old man later apprehended near Monticello, were suspected of robbing two banks of $5,000 in Cullom, Illinois on June 3. One wounded suspect died the following day in the Tippecanoe County Jail.

   The other wounded suspect survived and was subsequently charged with first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison in a change of venue to Carroll County.

   Officer Wilson was single and survived by his mother.