Constable Ernest Sargent, PC#134

Appointed 1924, Fallen Nov 5th, 1927

Originally from Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, England, Ernest Sargent immigrated to Canada and was a VPD Constable during the 1920s.

On the night of November 5th, 1927, a young boy witnessed Constable Sargent having a deadly altercation with a man at the south-west corner of 11th and Alder St. Looking out his bedroom window towards the home of Dr McLellan, the boy saw a man approach the Constable from an alley. Sargent had just locked the call box after making his hourly report at 4:30 am and upon seeing the figure called-out for him to stop.

The man continued on his path, appearing to have ignored the officer. As he reached Sargent, the man pulled out a .38 calibre semi-automatic pistol and shot Sargent in the stomach. A second shot was fired but missed. Sargent pulled his holstered revolver and fired several shots at the fleeing assailant. 

Having heard the shots, Dr McLellan came out to aid the wounded officer and see him to the hospital. While in hospital, Constable Sargent remained conscious, managing to give a detailed description of his attacker. The description matched that of the well known criminal Leong Chung. Shortly after identifying his attacker, on November 10th Constable Ernest Sargent died in Hospital from his wounds. 

On the same day as the shooting, crime scene investigators found evidence of an attempted break and enter at a nearby house at 2720 Alder that pointed to Chung as the culprit putting him at the scene of the murder. He was arrested days later in Victoria but was later found not guilty due to lack of evidence for the murder charge. The case remains officially unsolved.