John Joseph Winn

Lowell Police Dept. — Lowell, MA

Felonious

End of Watch May 3, 1971

Age 58

Tour of Duty 30 yrs

The Vigil Panel 108 ›

Gender Male

Incident Service The Sacrifice Department 3

Incident

Officer John J. Winn died as a result of injuries received in an assault seventeen months earlier. Office Winn was checking the doors of a church and two men attacked him when he entered the dark back stairwell to check the door. They attacked him with a tire iron, leaving him for dead, to take his pistol so they could hold up a liquor store and get money to buy drugs. However, Officer Winn wasn’t dead. He crawled and walked to a local pay phone where he called for an ambulance. His optic nerve was damaged and he went blind right away. Officer Winn lived for another seventeen months, dying as a result of the severe injuries that he sustained in that horrendous beating. Both suspects where apprehended and convicted of assaulting Officer Winn. One was sentenced to 15 to 25 years in prison and the other to 10 to 15 years.

In Our Keeping

Permanent identifier: BO-US-MA-57518B9A
Stewardship: Maintained by NeuraWeb Global Inc.
Added to badge.nw: April 2, 2026
Last updated: July 23, 2026

Honored here by 1 sentinel - 1 tribute.

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Tributes

30 years. You could have gone home.
Police Officer Winn gave the Lowell Police Department 30 years. Still answering calls at the end.
Thank you for your service to the Lowell community. Gone but never to be forgotten.
Rest easy, Police Officer Winn.

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

Agency

Department Lowell Police Dept.

Location Lowell, MA

Platform Identity lowepd.middlesex.ma.us.gov.nw

Service Record

End of Watch May 3, 1971

Tour of Duty 30 yrs

Age 58

Gender Male

Incident Details

Cause Felonious

Weapon Blunt object

Offender Not available

Police Officer John Joseph Winn is one of 17,623 officers killed feloniously — deliberately targeted and murdered in the line of duty across the full record of this memorial — 54.2% of all 32,508 officers honored here.

In MA, 199 of 469 officers were killed feloniously — deliberately targeted and murdered in the line of duty — 42.4% of this state's fallen. That is 11.8 percentage points below the national rate of 54.2%.

At Lowell Police Dept., 3 of 4 officers on record were killed feloniously — deliberately targeted and murdered in the line of duty — 75% of this agency's fallen.

Lowell Police Dept.

of 4 officers

75% Felonious

MA — Statewide

199

of 469 officers

42.4% Felonious

Nationwide

17,623

of 32,508 officers

54.2% Felonious