Detective Sergeant Ambrose Banta was struck and killed by a train at the North Belmont Avenue crossing in Indianapolis.

   While walking along the tracks, a switch engine backed onto him. His body was discovered only after several cars had been switched to a siding.

   He was taken to City Hospital in Indianapolis where he was pronounced dead.

   Detective Sergeant Banta, from Indianapolis, had previously served as sheriff in Fountain County after having been elected to office as a Republican in 1918 and 1920 to two, two-year terms.

   He was survived by his wife, two sons, three daughters, mother, three brothers and two sisters.

The responsibilities of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway Police Department (1889–1930) are now under the jurisdiction of the CSX Transportation Railroad Police Department.

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This officer, discovered in 2017, has not been submitted for consideration as an eligible line of duty death to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund by the CSX Transportation Railroad Police Department.

Read more on our research at Honoring Our Fallen Sheriffs.