Joseph E. Sanchez

Sergeant Joseph Sanchez succumbed to a gunshot wound sustained two months earlier while arresting a suspect for robbery. At 7 pm, Sergeant Sanchez and a Patrolman stopped a vehicle at the intersection of South 13th Street and Spain Street after being alerted to an armed robbery. The subject shot Sergeant Sanchez as he approached the car. Sergeant Sanchez was transported to Baton Rouge General Hospital with a bullet lodged in his spine. The wound caused a blood clot to develop, which moved to his heart. The 38-year-old suspect was apprehended in New Orleans two days later. He was convicted of attempted murder and robbery and sentenced to 30 years. After Sergeant Sanchez died, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. In 1972, The United States Supreme Court struck down the death penalty, and his sentence was replaced with life in prison. Sergeant Sanchez was a WWII and Korean War veteran who had been a prisoner in a German POW camp for 20 months and served with the Baton Rouge Police Department for 14 years. He was survived by his wife, daughter, two brothers, and a sister. He is buried at Saint Theresa of Avila Catholic Cemetery in Gonzales, Ascension Parish, Louisiana.