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Tuesday, 21 January 2020 20:33

Officer Edward J. Kowalewski

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Officer Edward J. Kowalewski

On this day in Baltimore Police History 1962 we lost our brother Police Officer Edward J. Kowalewski to Gunfire based on the following:

While attempting to assist a cab driver who was being robbed, Patrolman Kowalewski was shot and killed, he became the third Baltimore City Police Officer to be killed in 1962 -

The Following Sun Paper Article best tells the events of 2 July, 1962

Suspect to be Charged
In Slaying of Policeman
July 3, 1962
Police said last night (2 July, 1962) they will charge a suspect today in connection with the slaying of a city policeman who was shot when he attempted to help a wounded cab driver at North Avenue and Charles street yesterday. The dead officer, is the third policeman killed in the line of duty this year. He was Patrolman Edward J. Kowalewski a 35 year-old father of four children and an eight years veteran of the department.

After receiving treatment for a bullet wound of the lower back at Maryland General Hospital. Mr. Rich had driven the suspect to Baltimore from Washington before the shooting. Washington police had issued a look out for a fugitive in an armed robbery that closely resembled the main custody, police said. The suspect, fleeing in another cab and pursued by a third cab, was captured by Patrolman Stanley Zawadski, a boyhood friend of slain officer at Orleans and Gay streets. Police said he was reloading his gun when taken into custody. Witnesses including a hold-up victim and the victim of an attempted hold-up each from Washington, viewed the suspect in lineups at Police Headquarters yesterday afternoon. Police identified the man as Ray Allen Nixt, 40, a waiter with no home address. Officers said he was paroled recently from Folsom Prison in California after serving ten years of a life sentence for armed robbery.
Cab drivers credited with aiding in the capture, were Zonnie Wisc. 34, who chased the fugitive and picked up Patrolman Zawadski on the way Charles L Wise, who was forced at gunpoint to drive him alway from the shooting scene and later disarmed him, and Charles II. Miller, 33, who saw the Hashing light alarm on the commandeered vehicle and forced it to the curb.

Patrolman Kowalewski whose home was at 1231 Church Street, Curtis Bay, will be given an inspector’s funeral Friday
Services will be held at 9:15 AM at the William S. Fialkowski Funeral establishment. 4200 Pennington Avenue, followed by a Requiem Mass at 10 A.M. at St. Athanasius Church, at Prudence and Church streets. Two other officers killed this year were Patrolman Henry Smith, Jr. killed April 7, while trying to break up a dice game in the 700 block West Lexington Street, mid Patrolman Richard Seebo killed May 26 by a motorist he stopped in the 300 block East Twentieth Street.

We his brothers and sisters of the Baltimore Police Department will not let him be forgotten. God Bless and Rest in Peace.

More details

NameDescription
End of Watch 2 July, 1962
City, St. North Avenue and Charles street
Panel Number 15-W: 15
Cause of Death Gunfire
Weapon - Handgun
District Worked Central
Read 4849 times Last modified on Wednesday, 22 January 2020 05:15
Published in Fallen Heroes
Baltimore Police Historical Soicety

The Baltimore Police Historical Society put this and other articles on this website together using research from old newspapers, old books, photos, and artifacts.

We rely more heavily on books written at or near the time of the incident we are researching or writing about. We do not put too much weight on the more recently written history books, or books that have been written with a biased opinion or agenda.

We try not to tell our readers what to think about our past as much as we tell a story with hopes of our readers forming their own opinions. That said, ever so often we come across a story that to us is so exciting that we might express that in our writings. but we hope our readers will form their own opinions based on the information written at the time, not information that was added years later using a filtered history that has been twisted and pulled in the direction of various storytellers that may or may not have had their own agendas.

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