James R. Schaffer

Chicago Police Department — Chicago, IL

Veteran → Felonious

End of Watch April 14, 1969

Age 48

Badge 824

The Vigil Panel 105 ›

Gender Male

Incident Service The Sacrifice Military Department 570

Incident

Sergeant James Schaffer and Detective Jerome A. Stubig were killed near the beginning of a rampage by a berserk gunman. Sergeant Schaffer and Detective Stubig were the first to arrive at the scene where two fellow officers had been shot. Six policemen and two civilians were also injured in the six-hour gun battle between a former marine, and hundreds of heavily armed police at 9521 South Exchange Avenue. The explosion from a bomb thrown at the two officers by the suspect first injured both men. As they laid injured, the suspect emptied his carbine into both men, killing them. The incident began when two detectives knocked on the suspect’s door and announced they were police officers. They were there to investigate a series of bombings. He answered the knock with gunfire. The suspect surrendered to Police Superintendent James Rochford at 9:00 p.m. that evening. The bomb squad defused 40 bombs in his home. Two weeks earlier the 43-year-old suspect set off a bomb in a department store killing a woman and injuring several more shoppers. A week later a bomb exploded in a railroad yard killing a man. The suspect, known as the "South Chicago Bomber", was adjudged insane and sent to Chester Mental Hospital in Menard where he died in 2014. Sergeant Schaffer was U.S. Army veteran of WWII. His wife and daughter survive him.

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Permanent identifier: BO-US-IL-DF6A0C05
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Added to badge.nw: August 2, 2026
Last updated: August 2, 2026

Honored here by 1 tribute.

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Tributes

I served 1985 to 1993. You served too, before the badge - different uniform, same idea. You go where you are sent and you do not get to pick the call.
Sergeant Schaffer served with the Chicago Police Department.
Thank you for your service to the Chicago community, and for your service before it. Gone but never to be forgotten.
Rest easy, brother.

— S. Vincent Anthony, U.S. Army 1985-1993

Agency

Department Chicago Police Department

Type Police Department

Location Chicago, Cook County, IL

Platform Identity cpd.cook.il.us.gov.nw

Service Record

End of Watch April 14, 1969

Age 48

Badge Number 824

Gender Male

Incident Details

Cause Felonious

Weapon Rifle

Military Service

James R. Schaffer served in the U.S. Army before joining law enforcement.

View full service record on salute.nw →

Sergeant James R. Schaffer is one of 1 officers killed feloniously — deliberately targeted and murdered in the line of duty across the full record of this memorial — 0% of all 97,759 officers honored here.

In IL, 842 of 1,318 officers were killed feloniously — deliberately targeted and murdered in the line of duty — 63.9% of this state's fallen. That is 63.9 percentage points above the national rate of 0%.

At Chicago Police Department, 396 of 571 officers on record were killed feloniously — deliberately targeted and murdered in the line of duty — 69.4% of this agency's fallen.

Chicago Police Department

396

of 571 officers

69.4% Felonious

IL — Statewide

842

of 1,318 officers

63.9% Felonious

Nationwide

of 97,759 officers

0% Felonious