DEER LODGE - A Flathead County sheriff who died from an injury suffered while on duty is finally being honored 100 years after his death.
The Montana Law Enforcement Officers’ Memorial, located inside the Old Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge, recently added Robert George Fitzpatrick to the list of honored dead. Fitzpatrick died in September of 1925 during a traffic stop south of Kalispell.
A defective firearm he was retrieving from his vehicle accidentally discharged and hit him in the leg.
“It was a faulty gun; it went off, went straight through, and up through his body. He was still able to complete the task, and then he drove himself to the hospital, and then he died two or three days later,” Museum Curator Heather Gregory said.
Fitzpatrick will join the wall of more than 130 officers who died in the line of duty.
