HONOR ROLL
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Hans Gilbert AamoldAppointed September 6, 1890
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At about 2200 hours (10:00 p.m.) Saturday night, September 26, 1914, Sergeant Hans Gilbert Aamold1, Badge No. 137, of the Rondo Avenue Substation, was shot by a robbery suspect outside of F.H. Ramlow’s Saloon at 353 University Avenue in the City of Saint Paul. The bar owner had called the police because he thought two suspicious men were going to rob him. Sergeant Aamold and Rondo Avenue Substation wagon driver Frank George Klein2, Badge No. 154, responded. Aamold entered the bar from the front and Kline from the rear, and the saloon owner pointed out the two men to the officers. As Sergeant Aamold walked one of the suspects out, the man produced a gun and shot him twice. One bullet had struck him in the abdomen and passed through his body. Aamold fell to the ground, fatally injured.
Kline, who was still inside with the other suspect at the time of the shooting, later took his suspect to the station for questioning. He was identified as Daniel Carney, 35, and did not divulge the name of the shooter.
Twenty minutes later, Motorcycle Patrolman Frank C. Welander Sr.3, Badge No. 359, from the Prior Avenue Substation, was sent to 1721 Blair Street on a report of boys trying to steal refreshments at a party. As the officer was trying to locate the house number, he saw a man wearing a raincoat walking down the street. The man shot at the officer four times, hitting him in his right hand and arm, his left leg and his abdomen. The officer had no chance to use his gun and was transported to Cobb Hospital. He recovered.
The shooter, who matched the description of the suspect from the earlier Aamold shooting, escaped a second time. Sergeant Hans Aamold was taken to City and County Hospital (later named Ancker Hospital) where he died the next day, Sunday, September 27, 1914, at 1530 hours (3:30 p.m.).
Although police personnel records do not give a date of birth, other records indicate that Hans Gilbert Aamold (aka Arnold) was born on September 13, 1867, raised in Rushford, Fillmore County, Minnesota, and came to Saint Paul in 1882. Aamold was hired, initially, as a driver for the Margret Street Substation patrol wagon. Two years later, he drove the wagon at the Central Station. He did this for three years and then had been assigned back to the Margaret District. On February 16, 1900, he was promoted to Desk Sergeant, remaining at the Margaret Street Substation. In 1905 he was transferred to the Rondo Street Substation. Forty-seven year old Aamold had been with the Bureau of Police since September 6, 1890 (twenty-four years) when his life was taken. He was survived by his wife, Clara, and five children, Lena, Edith, Walter, Helen and Dorothy. Sergeant Aamold’s funeral was held on Wednesday, September 30, 1914, in the family home at 913 DeSoto Street, and he is buried at the German Lutheran Cemetery (now Elmhurst Cemetery), Saint Paul, Minnesota.
1 Hans Gilbert Aamold was appointed Patrolman September 6, 1890; was promoted to Sergeant February 16, 1900; was fatally injured by gunfire while arresting a robbery suspect September 26, 1914, and died Sunday September 27, 1914.
2 Frank George Klein was appointed Patrolman June 4, 1903; and retired March 1, 1924.
3 Frank C. Welander Sr. was appointed Motorcycle Patrolman June 1, 1905; was shot on duty by an unknown assailant September 26, 1914; returned to duty December 1, 1914; and retired October 18, 1940.